CAPITAL REGION — An additional eight people have died from COVID-19 and its complications in Capital Region counties, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office reported on Saturday.
The deaths include three more people in Schenectady County — cases that appear to among the four COVID deaths that the county said it was notified about on Friday. Reporting delays sometimes mean county and state figures don’t match, and the state currently lists total COVID deaths in Schenectady County at 70, while the county’s total is 68.
Schoharie County, meanwhile, reported another death — only its third since the pandemic started in March, by far the lowest death total of any county in the region. The Schoharie County Department of Health said it was notified of the death on Friday.
Schoharie County currently has 80 active cases, and in general the cases it is seeing now are more serious than they have been previously, the county Health Department posted Friday on Facebook. “We are seeing not only a large increase in cases, but many more people who need a higher level of care,” it wrote.
Statewide, there were 127 COVID deaths reported on Saturday — seven more than were reported on Thursday and on Friday, continuing an upward trend in deaths since September. Statewide daily death tolls haven’t been so high since late May, when the pandemic was primarily impacting New York City and its immediate surrounding counties.
Elsewhere in the region, Albany County reported two more deaths (County Executive Dan McCoy said there were three), and Montgomery and Saratoga counties reported having one more death each.
In cases diagnosed the previous day, Albany County continued to lead the region with 176 new cases; McCoy said that number may be artificially low because some testing sites were closed on Thursday due to cleanup from Wednesday night’s snowstorm.
Schenectady County reported 109 new cases; Saratoga, 100; Rensselaer, 100; Montgomery and Fulton counties, 16 cases each; and Schoharie County, seven.
In releasing the latest data, Cuomo urged the public to maintain social distancing and wear masks during the upcoming holidays, though he also called the arrival and distribution of the first doses of vaccine “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“New Yorkers have proven themselves time and time again throughout this pandemic, and I believe we can learn from what we saw during Thanksgiving,” Cuomo said. “If we stay tough and smart by socially distancing and wearing masks, we can avoid the holiday surge the experts are predicting and finally win this war.”
Categories: -News-, Fulton Montgomery Schoharie, Saratoga County, Schenectady County, Your Niskayuna
