ALBANY – The Capital Region crossed a dark milestone on Wednesday, with four more deaths from residents due to COVID-19 bringing the number of known deaths from the disease to 500.
The latest victims were residents of Albany, Rensselaer and Warren counties. Dan McCoy, Albany County executive, said on Wednesday that the victims were a woman in her 60s and a man in her 70s. Rensselaer County officials confirmed that her death was a 71-year-old woman from North Greenbush. And Warren County officials said they lost a resident of the local nursing home, although they did not specify which facility the person lived in when he died.
“My condolences and prayers go out to the family, to all members of the family,” said McCoy. “Please take a step back and enjoy everything you have in your life and cherish the people around you, because at the end of the day, I hope they’ve been around for a long time, but the reality is if something happen to them, enjoy the moments you have. “
The deaths occur while the region is experiencing a record number of new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.
As of Monday, eight local counties reported a total of 1,042 new coronavirus infections. It was the first time during the pandemic that the number of daily cases in the region exceeded the 1,000 mark.
In Albany County, where officials expressed concern about the number of daily cases in the 100s just after Thanksgiving, the number of daily cases in the 200s is now starting to become the norm. On Wednesday, McCoy said the county confirmed 218 new cases of the virus – marking the third consecutive day that the cases exceeded 200 in the county and for the eighth time this month. Most of these cases cannot be traced to a source of exposure. The others were linked to people who work in healthcare or who had contact with infected people, McCoy said.
The increase in cases is resulting in record hospitalizations and increasing the number of deaths.
Capital Region hospitals in the eight counties area reported 380 patients with COVID-19 on Tuesday, an increase of 18 from the previous day and more than double what it was a month ago. On Tuesday, hospital leaders in the Capital Region said they began limiting non-urgent surgeries in an effort to save space for what they predict to be an outbreak of new patients with COVID-19 in January.
“Any hope of seeing a continuing downward trend in the number of residents currently hospitalized for the virus was dashed today as we saw an alarming record of 18 new hospitalizations in just a 24-hour period,” McCoy said on Wednesday. ” ,, we still have a record number of people in intensive care. While we are doing what we can to slow the spread of the virus, regional hospital leaders are now making the difficult but necessary decision to take a proactive approach to slow down or even pause non-urgent surgery to ensure they have the right staff and bed capacity. This will allow them to care for all incoming patients, whether they have COVID or not. “
The capital region saw almost 300 deaths from the virus during the first three months of the pandemic and then a summer lull. It took another five months for the region to cross the 400 death mark – on November 27. Now, less than a month later, the region has surpassed the 500 mark.
Among the eight counties, Albany is responsible for most deaths with 196 deaths known from coronavirus. On Wednesday, Rensselaer County had the second highest death toll (79), followed by Schenectady County (73), Columbia County (49), Warren County (36), Saratoga County (31), Greene County ( 23) and Washington County (13).
Somewhere else
Glens Falls Hospital said on Wednesday that it received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine and started vaccinating employees. Some doses received are reserved for EMS and other first responders – the hospital said it is working directly with these first aid teams to vaccinate its members.
“Glens Falls Hospital has not received a vaccine to be given to the general public, nor do we know the schedule for such vaccines, or where the public will go to receive the vaccine,” the hospital said in a statement.