Albany County continued its worrying number of deaths from the coronavirus in January, with the addition of seven more deaths registered on Saturday, said county executive Dan McCoy. But those seven deaths did not occur overnight, said McCoy.
“There was a reporting delay of four deaths and we learned that the other three people died in mid-December,” McCoy said in a statement. “I am investigating why the December deaths were just reported and they all lived in congregated environments.”
Related: Record-breaking coronavirus deaths in Albany County
These seven deaths include a woman in her 60s; a woman in her 70s; two women and a man in his 80s; and a woman and man in their 90s. The county has seen 272 people die of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
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The problem with county death reports follows a couple of incidents involving congregated environments. The first occurred at St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, when in December nine nuns died in just over a month, but five of those deaths were not immediately reported to the Albany County Health Department, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen. The second came on January 6, when McCoy expressed frustration that the county was only finding out about four deaths that occurred in a nursing home between December 12 and January 3.
“You would expect that after 10 months, we would have the system ready. You would think that we would have nursing homes reporting to us, ”said McCoy at the January 6 briefing.
There were 257 new positive cases of coronavirus overnight, McCoy said at the Saturday morning briefing, with 200 without a clear source of infection. Fifteen more people were hospitalized overnight, bringing the total number of hospitalizations to 167.
Statewide
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Saturday that another case of the UK variant was identified in Tompkins County. To date, there are 17 known cases of the variant in the state, some of them in Saratoga County.
There were 157 deaths of COVID-19 in the state on Friday and the positivity rate is 5.77 percent, his office said.
Exposure warning
Schenectady County Public Health Services confirmed an employee who later tested positive for COVID-19, worked at the Tops American Grill in Rotterdam from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm on January 9 and 10 and from 8:00 am to noon on 11 January. The agency is working to identify and quarantine contacts close to the worker. Although the agency believes that the risk of exposure is low, members of the public who had dinner at Tops during these times should monitor themselves for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days from that date and consider getting tested. If symptoms develop, stay home and call your doctor, and SCPHS at (518) 386-2824 option 2, for further guidance.