ALBANY COUNTY — On Tuesday, as President Joe Biden announced the date for universal eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination is moving forward from May 1 to April 19, New York State was already there.

Tuesday marked the first day that any New Yorker 16 or older would be eligible for vaccination. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a “Vaccinate NY” ad campaign to run on television, radio, online and print statewide.

Earlier in the week, at an event in Queens, he had promoted the Roll Up Your Sleeves campaign, which he said at a press conference later in the day, “focuses on the social equity campaign on vaccinations, making sure we’re getting it to the communities that have been hardest hit by COVID.”

Cuomo went on, “We are very aggressive in public housing, in churches, in community centers, in communities of color on the vaccination program.”

Albany County has its own ad campaign to promote vaccination.

Biden said on Tuesday that new variants are spreading and we are in a “life-and-death race with this virus” as more vaccine rolls out.

Nationwide, more than 2 million shots a day are being given as, over the last two weeks, the United States has experienced a 20-percent increase in new COVID-19 cases.

Reaching not just the hesitant but the homeless became a priority in Albany County this week, it’s 56th of coping with the coronavirus.

Andrew Joyce, who chairs the county legislature, said on Monday that he was working with the sheriff to vaccinate homeless people. A point of dispensing, or POD, was held Tuesday at the Capital City Rescue Mission on South Pearl Street, which dispensed the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Also on Monday, the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, released an analysis showing “job losses from the pandemic and the ensuing economic shutdown were swift and deep: Employment in New York declined by nearly 2 million jobs from February to April 2020.”

He reported on new data released by the state’s Department of Labor that shows less than half of the jobs lost during that time have been recovered, and employment is still more than 1 million jobs below its pre-pandemic levels.

In the midst of grim economic news, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy shone a light Monday on a woman whom he said was inspiring and had lifted spirits.

“People really were struggling these last 56 weeks,” said McCoy, noting the large numbers of workers who were laid off.

He highlighted a county resident, Jammella Anderson, who was recently featured on the cover of Time magazine for “Facing Hunger Head-On” in a series on women and the pandemic.

McCoy said Anderson showed: “You can make a difference in someone’s life.”

Anderson serves as a modern-day Robin Hood, redistributing wealth. But, rather than using a quiver of arrows, she relies on the generosity of neighbors; they are her Merry Men.

Anderson’s Free Food Fridge program places colorful refrigerators in areas where people need food.

“Restaurants, farmers, and individuals who are able to spread their wealth and redistribute their wealth … just put food in it,” Anderson explained, “so then community members who may not have ever experienced a food apartheid or food insecurity are able to just take with complete anonymity.”

She went on, “I think that takes a lot of layers of shame out of it and is a better way to show that the community is here to support when we don’t think they are all the time …. The income cliff for people has been really dramatic.”

The pandemic, said Anderson, was “a wake-up call of, ‘Hey, we really need to all come together and people who are homeless, people who are in marginalized communities, we are all each other’s neighbors and, if we can all work together, then we’re going to get through this a lot easier.”

McCoy presented Anderson with a proclamation, a pin, and a county coin as the Albany County Citizen of the Month and thanked her for “lifting up spirits” and “inspiring the next generation.”

He concluded, “Everyone makes a difference.”

Opening up

Cuomo announced on Friday that performing arts and entertainment venues could reopen at one-third capacity.

Venues can host up to 100 people indoors or up to 200 people outdoors. If all attendees present proof of completed vaccination or recent negative test results prior to entry, capacity can increase up to 150 people indoors or up to 500 people outdoors.

The state guidance requires that attendees stay six feet apart, wear masks, and be screened before entering the venues.

Cuomo encouraged New Yorkers to use an Excelsior Pass — a free, voluntary platform that the state developed with IBM that documents someone who has completed vaccination or tested negative for COVID-19. Similar to a mobile airline boarding pass, Excelsior Passes can be printed out or stored in smartphones.

At Albany County’s Friday morning press briefing, Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen cautioned residents about large gatherings.

“The numbers are not going in the direction we want them to go,” she said of infection rates. “We started a downward trend and now we’re kind of at a period where we’re looking at slight increases. … We don’t want an uptick.”

On Monday, the 11 p.m. curfew in place for casinos, movie theaters, bowling alleys, billiards halls, gyms and fitness centers lifted.

The 11 p.m. curfew for food and beverage establishments and the midnight curfew for catered events remains in effect. Both curfews will be evaluated later this month, said a release from the governor’s office.

Help for eateries

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer announced from a grill in Amsterdam that restaurants across the state are eligible for their own federal pandemic relief through the American Rescue Plan.

Schumer said he is pushing the Small Business Association to set up the new program quickly.

“Even with 75-percent capacity rules that started on March 19, Capital Region restaurants, their employees, and the overall regional economy still need immediate federal relief to weather COVID because too many of the places we know and love could close without the help, leaving a giant hole in our local economy,” said Schumer.

At the height of the pandemic, the New York State Restaurants Association estimated that 80 percent of restaurant employees were out of work and one in every six restaurants closed.

The association’s report points out that New York has fared worse than the rest of the nation: Over half of New York’s restaurants — 54 percent — said they likely would not survive the next six months without federal relief. This compares to 37 percent of restaurants nationwide.

Food service or drinking establishments, including caterers, brewpubs, taprooms, and tasting rooms, that are not part of an affiliated group with more than 20 locations, will be eligible. Grants from the fund can be used alongside first and second Paycheck Protection Program loans, SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance, and the Employee Retention Tax Credit.

The grant maximum is $10 million per restaurant group and $5 million per individual restaurant.

Vaccination

The Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center in Albany will receive about $3.5 million for COVID-19 vaccinations as part of the American Rescue Plan, Congressman Paul Tonko announced this week.

New York State is getting close to $397 million to support 63 health centers in the vaccine effort, according to a release from Tonko’s office. The purpose is to provide treatment for vulnerable populations that can include testing and vaccination for COVID-19 as well as delivering preventive and primary health care services to people at higher risk for the disease.

Early in the pandemic, Whitney Young partnered with Albany County to provide walk-up neighborhood testing geared for neighborhoods in which people may be unlikely to use distant drive-through testing sites.

“As our country moves forward in the immunization process, our local community health centers will play a critical role in increasing vaccination rollout,” said Tonko in a statement.

Also this week, Cuomo announced that the “production issues” at a Johnson & Johnson affiliate factory in Baltimore would not affect next week’s allocation to New York.

Several weeks ago, workers at the Baltimore factory mixed ingredients from the coronavirus vaccines of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, contaminating up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine and forcing regulators to delay authorization of the plant’s production lines, according to The New York Times; Johnson & Johnson doses that are currently being delivered and used in the United States were made in the Netherlands.

“New Yorkers can rest assured that next week’s allocation will not be impacted and all appointments scheduled at state-run mass vaccination sites will be honored,” said Cuomo in Thursday’s statement. “As we learn more information about potential impacts going forward, we will provide updates.”

On Wednesday, Cuomo directed the Department of Financial Services to extend the emergency regulation requiring all health insurers to waive co-pays for the COVID-19 vaccine until April 30.

The extension will help to ensure there are no barriers to New Yorkers accessing the vaccine as the state continues to “implement its vaccine administration plan and get every New Yorker vaccinated,” said a release from the governor’s office.

Vaccine in Albany County continues to roll out efficiently. As of Wednesday evening, according to the state’s vaccine tracker, 41.8 percent of the county’s 307,117 residents had received at least a first dose. McCoy announced Wednesday morning that 21.2 percent of county residents ad been fully vaccinated.

Statewide, 34.4 percent of New Yorkers have had a first dose while 21.7 percent have completed a vaccine series.

The county’s POD can now vaccinate all eligible New Yorkers — anyone 16 or older.

Whalen said that, of the three COVID-19 vaccines given emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, only one — Pfizer-BioNTech — can be used for 16- and 17-year-olds. So she advised people in that age group to sign up for clinics dispensing the Pfizer vaccine.

Appointments are required at the county’s POD, which is run out of the Times Union Center in Albany. The POD has started a stand-by list so that it can summon people if there are no-shows or if vials produce 11 rather than the expected 10 doses of vaccine.

To get on the stand-by list residents should email COVIDVaccineStandbyList@AlbanyCountyNY.gov.

Albany County has two other large government-run vaccination sites: The Washington Avenue Armory, which is run jointly by the state and federal governments, and tents at the uptown University at Albany campus, run by the state.

Additionally, local pharmacies are now being supplied with vaccine, including Walmarts at Washington Avenue, Glenmont on Route 9W, and Sam’s Club in Latham — all using Pfizer — and Walmart in Latham, which is administering Johnson & Johnson.

Throughout the week, McCoy urged residents to pre-register on the county’s website for vaccines; other venues besides the county’s POD use the list and now residents of neighboring Rensselaer and Schenectady county’s can pre-register as well.

Whalen addressed elderly people or people with underlying health conditions who didn’t get vaccinated when they were first eligible. “I hope the months that we have been doing this have been providing reassurance to those that were a little concerned … that this vaccine is safe and effective,” she said.

Whalen also noted, “We have seen a change in our trends from older people being predominantly affected to younger people being infected because of the vaccination so we know this vaccine is protecting people.”

This week, Albany County, in its 17th week of giving shots received a “pretty large” allocation, Whalen said: 2,600 doses of Moderna and 1,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson as well as 1,600 supplemental doses earmarked for college students.

“This is a new development,” Whalen said, noting the importance of vaccinating college students.

She once again praised both her staff and the volunteers — many of them retired doctors or nurses — who are working at the POD.

“What we have found when we come together …,” Whalen said, “People find that there is an atmosphere of joy; people find that there is an atmosphere of reassurance; people find that they get individual attention if they are concerned or nervous.”

Variants

In the United States, by mid-March, the variant B.1.1.7, first identified in the United Kingdom, accounted for 27 percent of the COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is up from 1 percent at the start of February.

The CDC’s national genomic surveillance program identifies new and emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, the scientific name for COVID-19, to determine implications for COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments, or vaccines. Monitoring the spread of emerging variants in the United States relies on widespread, rapid sequencing, the CDC says.

The proportion of lineages circulating in the United States are tracked and characterized to determine if they are considered:

—  Variants of interest, which have “potential diagnostic impact, or predicted increase in transmissibility or disease severity”;

— Variants of concern, which show “an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination”; or

— Variants of high consequence, which have “clear evidence that prevention measures or medical countermeasures have significantly reduced effectiveness relative to previously circulating variants.”

The variants of concern that the CDC lists for New York State are B.1.1.7 at 3.7 percent, B.1.351 at 0.2 percent, and B.1.427 at 5.6 percent. Other lineages make up 90.5 percent.

The CDC’s COVID Data Tracker still shows Albany County, like most of the rest of the state, with a “high” level of community transmission. The tracker also says that, in the last seven days, there has been a nearly 13-percent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Monument for essential workers

Cuomo on Tuesday announced members of a committee to advise in the design of a monument “honoring the service and sacrifice” of essential workers, to be built in New York City.

He made the announcement at the Javits Center which had served the city as a makeshift hospital during the springtime surge of COVID-19.

Cuomo recalled giving the stay-home order, closing schools and businesses to keep New Yorkers safe, which he said was his toughest decision.

“You know what the next sentence out of my mouth was? Except you, essential workers. We need you to go to work,” Cuomo recalled. “Everybody else can stay home and be safe, but not you, essential worker. We need you to leave your house because we need you to keep society stable.”

“We’re judged as an enlightened society, as a humane society, by how we help those who need our help the most,” said Mario Cilento, president of New York State AFL-CIO who is on the advisory committee for the memorial.

“This memorial is a tribute to the humanity showed by these brave men and women. The humane standard they have left behind for all of us now to attain moving forward — that’s why this is so important,” said Cilento at the Javits Center event. “It is the example that they set for all of us.”

Newest numbers

“Our numbers are holding steady and that’s not a good thing and it’s not a bad thing,” said Whalen on Monday. “We need our numbers to start to decrease.”

She said she hoped they wouldn’t bump up because of Easter gatherings.

On Wednesday morning, in a release, McCoy reported 52 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the county’s tally to 22,718.

Of the new cases, 31 did not have clear sources of infection identified, 20 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, and one was a health-care worker or resident of a congregate living setting.

The five-day average for new daily positives has increased to 57.8 from 56.4. There are now 523 active cases in the county, down from 559 on Tuesday.

The number of Albany County residents under quarantine dropped to 1,218 from 1,326. So far, 72,696 residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 22,195 had tested positive and recovered. That is an increase of 87 recoveries since Tuesday.

There were five new hospitalizations overnight and there are now 24 county residents hospitalized from the virus — a net increase of one. There are currently six patients in intensive-care units, down from seven yesterday.

Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 366.

Albany County, as of Tuesday, as a seven-day rolling average, has an infection rate of 2.2 percent, according to the state’s dashboard.

Statewide, also as of Tuesday, as a seven-day rolling average, the infection rate is 3.5 percent.