ALBANY – Albany County officials are doubling in their call for continued public health precautions as the number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19 has started to rise again.
The county, like others in the region, has seen a steady decline in hospitalizations as coronavirus cases began to drop from record levels in mid-January. On January 19, hospitalizations among Albany County residents reached 186 and dropped to 21 two months later, on March 18. Since then, they have started to retreat.
“Unfortunately, the number of county residents in the hospital is starting to move in the wrong direction,” said county executive Dan McCoy on Wednesday morning. “In the past six days, we have gone from 21 current hospitalizations to 30. With the presence of the highly contagious UK and now the Brazilian variants in New York, we need to keep our guards up and not see this worrying trend continue. “
Recently, there has been a slight increase in hospitalizations across the region, with hospitals in the Capital Region reporting 106 coronavirus patients on Monday – against 92 the previous day. However, it may be too early to declare this a trend. The average seven days of daily hospitalizations in the region fluctuated close to 100 for about two weeks, dropping to 95 on Sunday and rising to 96 on Monday.
Hospitalizations tend to delay infections, however, and confirmed cases of the virus are on the rise. A Times Union analysis of data provided by eight local counties shows that the region averages 216 cases of the virus per day, compared to a recent drop of 188 on March 15.
Local authorities have been pleading with residents of the Capital Region to be vaccinated if they are eligible, noting that time is of the essence now that another more contagious variant of the virus has been found in New York.
“We are seeing a third wave in other countries,” said Albany County Health Commissioner, Dr. Elizabeth Whalen, last week. “The term ‘third wave’ is not something we want to think about, but it is definitely a possibility and, as we see these highly transmissible strains emerging and spread across different parts of the country and in other countries, this is a major concern for us. “
On Tuesday, nearly 32 percent of people in the eight counties region received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and nearly 16 percent were fully vaccinated, according to the state’s Vaccine Tracker.
“Please continue to wear a mask, distance yourself socially, cough and sneeze on your elbow and get tested,” McCoy said on Wednesday. “We still need to use these practices until we can vaccinate more people.”