Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy announced today that there are now 278 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Albany County. Additionally, there are now 464 people under mandatory quarantine and 82 people under precautionary quarantine. Since yesterday, there have been two additional deaths due to the Novel Coronavirus – a woman in her 90’s and a man in his 70’s. The death toll for the county now stands at six. 

With 34 people now hospitalized, the hospitalization rate for the county stands at just over 12%. Twelve of those individuals are now in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Mona Golub Vice President of Public Relations and Consumer Affairs of Price Chopper/Market 32 joined the County Executive in making the announcement to discuss their efforts to keep customers and employees safe during the ongoing Novel Coronavirus pandemic. 

“It continues to break my heart to have to report on the deaths of Albany County residents, and I cannot imagine what these families are going through. It’s becoming clear that we’re entering a new phase of this pandemic, and sadly this is the new norm,” said County Executive McCoy. 

“The only way we are going to get through this and prevent as many tragedies as possible, is if we come together as a community. That’s why I was proud to work with Governor Cuomo and our local hospitals to ensure community testing for COVID-19 is available once again with a new mobile drive-thru facility at the University of Albany. I also want to thank our partners like Price Chopper/Market 32 and the Golub Family, who are implementing new social distancing and sanitation policies at their stores, preventing the stockpiling of critical items and more.”

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, Price Chopper and Market 32 stores have changed their policies to uphold public health and safety. They established special store hours exclusively for seniors (6:00–7:00am), they have placed special markers on floors indicating proper social distance, installed Plexiglas dividers at registers, temporarily suspended bottle redemption services and brought back disposable plastic bags.

The new mobile drive-thru testing facility made possible in part thanks to Albany Medical Center and St. Peter’s Health Partners is located at the Colonial Quad parking lot of the University at Albany (SUNY) main campus, 1400 Washington Avenue. The site will be open starting Monday, April 6 at 10:00am, and hours going forward will be every day of the week from 8:00am to 6:00pm. There will be no walk-ins allowed and all patients must be in a vehicle with an appointment made ahead of time by calling 888-364-3065. Those who have the highest risk of contracting COVID-19 will be prioritized.

County Executive McCoy also took the time to thank Albany Distilling Company for donating their very own hand sanitizer that they made to our Albany County Department of Health, which will be distributed to local healthcare workers and first responders.

For those experience stress, anxiety or even depression during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Albany County Mental Health Support Line is available seven days a week from 8am to 5pm at (518) 269-6634. County Executive McCoy is also offering videos on coping, AAU martial arts, exercise and more. Anyone experiencing a psychiatric emergency should still call the Albany County Mobile Crisis Team at (518) 549–6500.

With a priority on tracking those who have been exposed to COVID-19, the Albany County Health Department is asking that if you were at Popeye’s at 900 Central Avenue in Albany on Monday, March 23 from 4pm to10pm or Wednesday, March 25 from 11:30am to 4pm, please remain at home under precautionary quarantine until April 6 and April 8, respectively. You may have been exposed. Those individuals should also contact the County Health Department immediately at (518) 447-4580.

For all COVID-19 questions and concerns, residents are encouraged to use United Way’s 2-1-1 hotline as well as the State Department of Health’s hot line at 888-364-3065.