Virus cases surge
Infections, hospitalizations locally nearly double over two-week period.
Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have nearly doubled in the Capital Region over the past two weeks, returning to levels last seen in April, a Times Union analysis of local data shows.
Officials in the eight-county region were reporting 256 average cases of the virus a day as of Friday, up 97 percent from 130 just two weeks earlier.
The last time the region averaged that many cases was early April. Since then, cases dropped to a low of just 4.9 average daily infections in early July only to start climbing again as the highly contagious delta variant spread throughout the state.
According to a report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant now makes up more than 80 percent of all cases in the Northeast compared to just 2 percent several months ago.
In Albany County, 90 new cases of the virus were confirmed Saturday — the highest daily total since April 1, County Executive Dan McCoy said.
“The delta variant continues to show us it is highly contagious and we need to take that seriously by encouraging unvaccinated friends and neighbors to get a shot and by following CDC guidelines to help prevent the spread,” he said.
While confirmed caseloads have nearly doubled in recent weeks, the percentage of tests coming back positive for the virus has risen only slightly, from a weekly average of 4.2 percent on Aug. 6 to 4.4 percent as of Friday, state data show. The number of people seeking out testing statewide has risen 12 percent over that period, however.
Still, the last time the regional positivity rate was more than 4 percent was early February when the Capital Region was still in the midst of a deadly winter surge.
The current surge is sending another influx of COVID-19 patients into local hospitals, though fewer appear to be winding up in intensive care this time around.
Capital Region hospitals reported 109
patients with coronavirus on Friday, up from 57 just two weeks earlier. The last time area hospitals saw this many coronavirus
patients was April 18, and 31 of them required intensive care. This time around, just 23 of the patients were in ICUs, state data show.
It’s possible that’s due to increased vaccination rates, though hospital leaders have
said a majority of the patients they’ve seen in recent weeks are unvaccinated.
As of Friday, 66 percent of Capital Region residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine and 62 percent were fully vaccinated.