ALBANY —A county resident in their 50s died of COVID-19 from Monday to Tuesday, and nearly three-quarters of the 35 hospitalized with the virus are not vaccinated, said County Executive Dan McCoy.
“This is the highest percentage of unvaccinated individuals in the hospital we’ve seen yet in our weekly reports,” McCoy said. “Between these numbers and the loss of another county resident to the virus overnight, we’re reminded how important it is to get the shot to protect ourselves and loved ones from serious illness.”
Between Sept. 26 and Oct. 2, 622 new COVID infections were identified by the Albany County Department of Health. Among those cases, 294 were vaccinated, 284 were not and for 44 of them, the vaccination status was not provided, McCoy said. Vaccine status is self-reported by the case and provided without regard to the timing of vaccine administration and onset of illness.
The Albany County death toll now stands at 407 since the pandemic took hold in March, 2020.
There were three new hospitalizations from Monday to Tuesday with 11 in the ICU, a decrease of one. Twenty-six percent of those are fully vaccinated, McCoy said.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Albany County is now at 29,228 to date, with 71 new positive cases identified since Monday. The county’s five-day average of new daily positive cases is down to 83. The county’s most recent seven-day average of percent positive rates is now down to 3.7 percent and the Capital Region’s average rate is down to 3.6 percent.
On Tuesday, there were 515 active cases in the county, down from 544 Monday. The number of people under mandatory quarantine decreased to 836 from 850. So far, 91,548 people have completed quarantine to date. Of those who completed quarantine, 28,713 of them had tested positive and recovered – an increase of 99 additional recoveries.
As of Monday, 71.7 percent of all county residents received at least the first dose with 65.8 percent being fully vaccinated. The first dose rate for the county’s 18 and older population is now up to 82.8 percent.
The county has overseen 85 booster shots as of Tuesday.