ALBANY — As COVID-19 numbers continue to decline, Albany County crossed a grim threshold with the death of a man in his 80s from Wednesday to Thursday.
The man marks the 500th county resident to die from COVID-19 since the pandemic took hold in March, 2020.
There were 342 new cases from Wednesday to Thursday, bringing the total number of Albany County residents infected with the virus to 58,465. The seven-day average of new cases was down to 377.4 on Thursday, according to County Executive Dan McCoy.
“This is now the 500th death in the county since the pandemic started, and it unfortunately won’t be the last,” McCoy said in his daily press release. “While we see progress in our fight in some areas, we need to continue doing what we can to protect our most vulnerable from the virus, which is still spreading.”
Of the five Albany County deaths recorded from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24, one was not vaccinated while the four others were not.
As of Thursday, 80.2 percent of all county residents received the first dose of the vaccine and 72.7 percent are fully vaccinated. Of those 18 and older, 88.8 percent have received at least the first shot.
There were 13 new hospitalizations from Wednesday to Thursday. The net decrease of two brings the total number hospitalized to 107 with 16 of those in the ICU.
