Full Notification

In a press release, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy reported today that there were 218 new positive cases yesterday and that the County’s COVID-19 pandemic total is now 59,201 positive cases.  The County’s seven-day average of new daily positive cases decreased from 304.7 to 282.8 cases.  The County reported that there were two COVID-19 hospitalizations overnight and that the number of hospitalized County residents remained at 93 patients.  There are still 15 patients in the ICU.  The County’s pandemic death toll remained at 509.  
 
State DOH reported that the County’s rate for one vaccine dose is 80.3% of the County’s total population and 88.9% of the adult population, and the County’s rate for full-vaccination is 72.9% for the total population.  The State’s rate for one vaccine dose is 87.4% of the total population and 95.0% of adults, and the State’s rate for full-vaccination is 74.0% for the total population. 
 
The State’s COVID-19 website reported that yesterday’s results for 173,385 tests Statewide were 8,781 or 5.1% positive, with the seven-day average decreasing to 6.9%.  The Capital Region had 9,323 tests of which 891 or 6.9% were positive, with the seven-day average decreasing to 9.8%.  The County had 2,488 tests of which 163 or 6.6% were positive, with the seven-day average decreasing to 9.1%.
 
Governor Hochul announced today that the State’s positive rate for tests was 5.06%.  Other COVID-19 data included new hospitalizations (7,117, -558), new admissions (727), ICU patients (1,177, -9), intubations (709, -6), and deaths (124).  
 
The CDC’s infection report continues to show that Albany County has a “high rate” of COVID-19 transmission with a seven-day average of 580.35 positive cases per 100,000 residents.  The nation’s infection rate (1,144.9) and the State’s rate (634.8) remain at “high” infection rates.  Alaska (2,273.1) has the highest infection rate, with New York having the third lowest infection rate behind only New Jersey (592.8) and Maine (549.6).  It is a remarkable improvement from early January when New York had the highest infection rate.   
 
The weekly summary of COVID-19 data from the region’s 10 hospitals shows that unvaccinated persons, who are now just over 10% of the County’s adult population, account for 71% (41 of 58) ICU patients, 63% (12 of 19) ventilated patients, and 55% (21 of 38) deaths.  Unvaccinated persons also accounted for 57% of weekly COVID-19 admissions. 
 
The CDC’s national data shows that unvaccinated persons are 50 times more likely than fully vaccinated persons to die of COVID-19, and that the number of deaths among boosted persons is exceedingly rare.  Despite these documented statistics, the CDC estimates that only 67.7% of the nation’s eligible population (aged 5 years and older) are fully vaccinated, and that less than one-half or 48.2% of the nation’s eligible population (mostly aged 12 years and older) have received a booster shot. 
 
After favoring Buffalo Bills last week (utterly unfair to lose in overtime when not even given a chance on offense because of a coin-flip), and NY Giants all year (4-13 record; another reason not to have added a 17^th game this year), I am somewhat lost on which team to root for.  I’m just glad to see new teams and leaders (no perpetually present Tom Brady and thankfully for other players, no unvaccinated or tested Aaron Rodgers).  I’ll probably root for the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers because no one expected them to get this far, and Cincinnati is the city closest to here and our son, who likely still favors the NY Giants, lives in SF. 
 
Thank you for staying safe and calm.
 
Peter G. Barber
Town Supervisor