ALBANY COUNTY — Guidance for dealing with COVID-19 continues to evolve.

On Wednesday, the state’s health commissioner, Mary Bassett, issued the latest in mask-wearing requirements, which apply to health-care settings, adult-care facilities, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and public transportation hubs.

Also on Wednesday, the White House, echoing points President Joe Biden had made the night before in his State of the Union address, posted a four-pronged National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, stating, “This plan lays out the roadmap to help us fight COVID-19 in the future as we begin to get back to our more normal routines.”

Testing and treatments will be expanded as the nation prepares for new variants, said Biden, calling for an end to the shutdown of schools and businesses.

The new plan includes a test-to-treat proposal such that someone who tested positive for COVID-19 could immediately get, for free, antiviral pills.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had released new guidance for state and local governments, saying, “Universal case investigation and contact tracing are not recommended for COVID-19.” Rather, health departments should “prioritize specific settings and groups at increased risk,” the CDC says.

Albany County had stopped tracing in January, in the midst of the Omicron surge, after the state urged “self-management” when a person has been exposed to, or infected with, COVID-19.

The CDC now says health departments should prioritize high-risk congregate settings such as long-term care facilities, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters for case investigation and contact tracing.

Those are some of the same settings in which Bassett has announced masks must still be worn.

Other priorities are “unusual clusters of cases” and investigation of “novel or emerging variants that may pose significant risks for severe disease, hospitalization, or death,” the CDC says.

State: Masks required

“As of February 28, 2022, COVID-19 cases (7-day average 10.6 cases per 100,000 persons) have declined to levels last observed in July 2021, but levels of hospitalization (7-day average 1.2 new admissions per 100,000 persons and over 1,900 persons currently hospitalized) and death (7-day average of 29) remain high at levels last observed in November 2021,” Basset writes in her March 2 directive.

She goes on to site studies showing that masks reduce the spread of droplets that spread the virus, including multiple “real-world” studies. Bassett lists two from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

— Depending on mask quality, 56 percent to 83 percent of over 3,000 participants demonstrated lower odds of contracting the virus among those who reported always wearing a mask in indoor settings compared to those who didn’t; and

— A study of household transmission found that, in households with an index patient infected with the Omicron variant, household contacts who wore masks had a 43 percent lower chance of becoming infected compared to those who did not wear a mask.

Bassett’s masking directive applies to staff and visitors older than 2 at health-care settings; adult-care facilities regulated by the health department; incarcerated and detained people as well as staff and visitors at correctional facilities and detention centers; clients as well as visitors and staff at homeless shelters; and public transportation conveyances, like trains and buses, as well as transportation hubs, like airports and bus or train stations.

The requirement does not apply to buses or vans operated by schools, including early care and childcare programs.

Although the statewide mandate for school masking was lifted on March 2, the directive says, “Current CDC guidance recommends masking in schools when there is a high level of community COVID-19 burden, in order to keep children in school without risking close contact exposure that may lead to infection.

“While this determination does not mandate universal masking in schools, nothing in this determination shall be construed as limiting a county, city, town, health department or school district from requiring the use of face coverings in schools.”

Albany County is now labeled as “medium” by the CDC, the middle of three levels of transmission rates. School masking is not needed in counties labeled “low” or “medium.”

White House plan

The new White House plan, at about half the length of the Biden administration’s original 200-page plan for coping with the coronavirus, has much in common with that first plan.

“We look to a future when Americans no longer fear lockdowns, shutdowns, and our kids not going to school,” says the opening of the plan, which then goes on to outline the recent history of the pandemic in the United States.

The plan has these four prongs, each outlining financial backing needed from Congress:

— Protecting against and treating COVID-19

The nation has been through five waves of the pandemic since 2020, including three in the past year driven by new variants.

“Vaccinated and boosted people are 41 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than unvaccinated individuals …,” the plan says. “A December 2021 estimate suggested that vaccines saved over 1 million American lives and successfully prevented over 10 million hospitalizations.”

Currently, about a quarter of Americans remain unvaccinated.

The plan stresses the importance of equity and says the United States has initiated widespread testing strategies.

“Because we have these tools, we can begin to get back to our more normal routines safely and the use of public health mitigation measures like masking can be less frequent,” the plan says.

The plan goes on to list the initiatives that will require federal funding, including increasing manufacturing of vaccine, vaccinating the youngest children once a vaccine is approved, ensuring treatments for every American who needs them, sustaining and increasing manufacture of COVID-19 tests, ensuring equitable access for COVID-19 health care, and helping Americans suffering from long COVID;

— Preparing for new variants

This includes enhanced collection, production, and analysis of data, and expanded electronic case reporting as well as building a robust emergency response infrastructure.

The plan calls on Congress to improve data collection and wastewater surveillance; to support new Food and Drug Administration processes to speed review of variant-specific vaccines and treatments; and to add at-home tests, masks, and antiviral pills to America’s stockpile;

— Preventing economic and educational shutdowns

At the beginning of last year, the plan says, only 46 percent of K-12 schools were open for in-person learning, and millions of businesses had closed and tens of millions of Americans had lost their jobs in 2020.

Today, with investment from the American Rescue Plan, about 99 percent of K-12 schools are open for in-person learning, the plan says, and the United States was the first major economy to exceed its pre-pandemic economic output.

The plan calls for Congress to give schools and businesses tests and supplies to stay open; to give paid sick leave to workers who are out with or caring for someone with COVID-19; and to expand service at public-facing federal offices; and

— Leading the effort to vaccinate the world and save lives

“Fighting this virus abroad is key to America’s effort to protect people and stay ahead of new variants .…,” the plan says. “The President committed that the United States would be the world’s arsenal for vaccines — both because it’s the right thing to do and in our collective interest.”

The plan calls for Congress to increase efforts at worldwide vaccination and to save lives by solving the oxygen crisis and making emergency supplies widely available.

Albany County

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy, in his Thursday morning release on COVID-19, reported 47 new cases, putting the county’s seven-day average at 38.0. Albany County’s most recent seven-day average of COVID cases per 100,000 is now down to 9.6 and the county has an average percent positive rate of 2.6 percent.

McCoy reported five new COVID hospitalizations on Wednesday with 24 county residents currently hospitalized with the coronavirus — a net decrease of three. Of those hospital patients, three are currently in intensive-care units, down from four on Wednesday.

Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 528,

As of Wednesday, 81.1 percent of all Albany County residents have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, and 73.7 percent are now fully vaccinated.

Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber in his daily COVID report on Thursday wrote that town ambulances ended the month of February with no transports of a resident with a confirmed case of COVID-19.

“It was a steep drop from 10 transports in January, and nine in December, and is further evidence that the rate of infection in our community has quickly subsided,” said Barber. “The last month where there were no COVID transports was July, 2021. In fact, last summer had very few COVID transports, with none between May 20 and August 2, 2021.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Barber reported, town ambulances have transported 317 positive residents to area hospitals.