ALBANY COUNTY — While the governor, to stop the spread of coronavirus, recently doubled fines — from $500 to $1,000 — to enforce social distancing, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office has not made any arrests.

Sheriff Craig Apple said his office has received 35 complaints regarding bars and restaurants serving customers. According to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order, putting the state on “pause,” restaurants and bars may provide only curbside take-out service or home deliveries. 

Some businesses have put paper over their windows, Apple said, to hide the fact that they are operating. Nonessential businesses are to be closed and no more than 10 people are to gather, even for funerals. Cuomo has extended the statewide pause until at least April 29.

He has also created an online form that New Yorkers can use to make complaints about businesses that are violating the pause directives.

“We really don’t have time to run around and make sure people are social-distancing,” Apple said at the Friday morning county press briefing.

Deputies instead have had businesses as well as groups who have violated the executive orders sign cease-and-desist orders.

“The next time, you get hit with a fine or a crime — and that’s something that I really don’t want to do,” said Apple.

Apple also said of groups of people who congregate, “We’ll continue to disperse. I don’t want to be handing out fines … I think that’s going a little too far but, obviously, we want this to end. We want our economy opened back up. We want our social lives opened back up.”

He also said, “I need a haircut” — a reference to the mandatory shutdown of barber shops.

Apple reiterated his report that a deputy had tested positive for COVID-19 as well as a nurse at the county’s jail. Both men were cleared and went back to work, and no other workers exposed to them had shown symptoms, Apple said.

He went on, “I currently have one deputy assigned to our Clarksville station who tested positive this week.” Five or six deputies are reporting to work, he said, wearing masks. “If they show symptoms, they will stay home,” Apple said.

The sheriff’s office has distributed 45,000 to 50,000 N95 masks, 60,000 surgical masks, sanitizer, and gloves, Apple said. “Yesterday, we had a plane land in Albany with a million masks and I was downstate, buying masks,” said Apple.

He said of personal protective equipment for first responders and hospital staffers, “They need it desperately.” The sheriff went on, “For those of you who are hoarding it, there’s no report given out at the end of it how many you saved.”

Isolation cells are set up at the county jail and, when new inmates are admitted, they stay in those cells for 14 days, Apple said. “Thank god our staff up there has done everything to keep it from spreading in that facility,” Apple said.

Jail to shelter homeless

Apple had said, at a March 23 county briefing, that the wing at the county jail that he had, before the outbreak, planned to make into a homeless shelter could be used for that now as concerns were raised about homeless people spreading COVID-19 as they are housed closely in shelters.

The county has since housed some homeless people in local motels or hotels.

The wing to be used by homeless people is sealed off from the jail, which had unused cells since the prison population declined. The cells were remade, for example, with doors that open instead of bars.

“We’ll be ready to open next week,” Apple said on Friday. “We had to rush some hiring.”

Staff at the Homeless and Travelers Aid Society, based on Central Avenue in Albany, will be educating the staff for the new shelter, Apple said, adding, “This is all new for everybody.”

He said the remade wing can house 25 to 30 homeless people, using every other room, “without putting anyone too close.”

Apple added, “Unfortunately, I think that number is going to continue to rise.”

He went on to describe the philosophy of the new project: “We want to try to change their mindset and help them lead a healthy and productive life … Some people just didn’t have support. They’ve been out on the streets forever. We want to help them.”

The program, he said, will provide education, addiction counseling, and help in finding jobs, among other services.

“We’re prepared to do it all,” said Apple.