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In a press release today, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy reported that there were 217 new positive cases overnight in the County, which raised the County’s COVID-19 cumulative pandemic total to 66,530 positive cases.  The County’s seven-day average of new daily positive cases increased from 170.2 to 178.5 cases.  The number of County residents in the hospital due to COVID-19 symptoms is at 28 patients, with one patient in the ICU.  The County reported two COVID-19 deaths since the last update, a man in his 50’s and another man in his 80’s.  The County’s pandemic death toll stands at 551.  
 
The County Executive added:
 
Due to New York State closing down its VCC (Virtual Call Center) today, there will be an unknown margin of error in the reporting of our COVID case data as residency discrepancies and duplicative counting of cases may occur.  Albany County Department of Health is in the process of determining the best way to “clean” the data through computer sorting or filtering.  The issue of data accuracy is compounded by the lack of reporting of at-home test results which has been a consistent issue since the onset of Omicron.  As we have reported previously, hospitalizations and deaths are the leading metrics that many health professionals continue to use, however, if you use daily case count as a tool to make your personal decisions, please do so with the understanding that there is a margin of error in this reporting. 
          

In a press release today, Governor Kathy Hochul reported the State’s positive rate for tests yesterday (6.33%), hospitalizations (1,868, +87), new COVID-19 hospital admissions (377), ICU patients (196, +6), intubations (66, -3), and deaths (12).

The CDC ended the week by noting that vaccines have now been available for 500 days and 100.3 million have received the first booster dose.  The fact remains that 49.5% or 91 million eligible people have not yet received a booster.  Overall, about 257.4 million people, or 77.5% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one dose of vaccine. About 219.5 million people, or 66.1% of the total U.S. population, have been fully vaccinated.

The CDC also noted that, as of April 27, the seven-day average of daily new cases (53,133) increased 25.2% compared with the previous seven-day average (42,427). As of yesterday, of the nation’s counties, districts, and territories, 54 (1.68%), including Albany County and most of upstate New York have a “high” COVID-19 community level, 256 (7.95%) have a “medium” level and 2,910 (90.37%) have a “low” level.

In case you missed it, the State announced the return of online reservations required for the 27 miles of trails and pathways in the popular High Peaks area of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve in Keene.   The 7,000-acre reserve, which is privately owned, allows public access to a dozen High Peaks.  The reservation system will be in place from May 1 to October 31, and can be accessed here.

I hope that you have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend.