ALBANY COUNTY — The United States on Monday opened for international travelers — with proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test.

To capitalize on the resurgence of visitors to New York, Governor Kathy Hochul on Monday launched a $450 million initiative to bring back tourism and bring back jobs.

On Tuesday, Hochul announced the push is on to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds. She launched the “Vaccinate, Educate, Graduate” program that will net 50 vaccinated kids a free education at a state college or university.

Albany County started vaccinating children in that age group on Tuesday.

“This will provide children with an important layer of protection from the dangers of this virus,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy in a statement, “and it will provide parents with a level of peace of mind.”

Also this week, the Guilderland school district announced it will start a diagnostic COVID-19 testing program on Nov. 15 that can be used by families if a student has COVID symptoms or has had close contact with someone suspected of having the virus.

Tourism push

At New York City’s Museum of Natural History on Monday, Hochul launched the “Bring back tourism, bring back jobs” $450 million initiative.

“I want to make New York fun again,” said Hochul. “I want people to feel that vitality, that energy that all of us knew before the pandemic.”

The economic impact of COVID-19 on the state’s tourism economy has been severe; in 2019, the tourism industry supported one out of 10 jobs and generated more than $100 billion in economic impact, according to the governor’s office.

Last year, international visits were down 86 percent from 2019, and domestic visits fell by 37 percent, generating a nearly 55-percent loss in direct spending and an almost 50-percent drop in economic impact.

To jumpstart tourism, the package includes:

— $100 Million Tourism Worker Recovery Fund   

The state’s labor department will issue one-time payments of $2,750 to as many as 36,000 qualified workers in tourism sector industries. New Yorkers who are eligible will be contacted directly via text or email;

— $100 Million Tourism Return-to-Work Grant Program   

Qualifying tourism businesses will be eligible for grants of up to $5,000 per net new full-time employee, or $2,500 per net new part-time employee, hired to offset their labor costs. Businesses that can demonstrate the greatest workforce losses resulting from COVID-19 will be a priority;

— $25 Million Meet in New York Grant Program   

This program is to help convention centers and conference spaces bring more events, traveler spending, and jobs back to New York State. Qualifying venues and their partnering event hotels can offer meeting organizers discounts on booking fees or room blocks to entice business, with grants reimbursing a portion of such discounts;

— $25 Million I LOVE NY Global Marketing Campaign

This allows the I LOVE NY campaign to expand its current marketing efforts into additional domestic and international markets and will include broadcast and digital elements; and

— $200 Million Program for Businesses Started Just Prior to or During the Pandemic   

Hochul plans to introduce legislation in January 2022 to create a $200 million program designed to support businesses started just prior to or during the pandemic. This initiative would use existing funding in the state’s $800 million COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program to support younger businesses that were otherwise ineligible for relief through existing state and federal programs.

The Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program has so far awarded over $325 million to support nearly 20,000 small and micro-businesses across New York State. More than 19,000 awardees were businesses with 10 or fewer employees, 83 percent of grantees were minority and women-owned businesses, and the average grant funded has been nearly $17,000.

Tourism, Hochul said at Monday’s event, “creates very human connections.”

She named diverse organizations and events from botanical gardens and zoos to cultural plays and festivals. “They really feed our souls,” said Hochul. “They leave us feeling enriched, and that’s why we felt we were hungry and starving during the pandemic.”

She also went over the numbers. “Tourism in our state, when we’re going well, is a $117 billion industry, third largest industry in our state, hundreds of thousands of jobs associated with it, and we used to have visitors come, 265 million visitors came statewide, they spent more than $73 billion,” said Hochul.

On Tuesday, Hochul joined with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut — Democrats all — to announce the suballocations of federal relief funding from Congress meant to mitigate pandemic-related losses in transit system ridership and revenues.

After negotiations, the states agreed that approximately $10.85 billion of the funding will be for New York, $2.66 billion will be for New Jersey, and $474 million will be for Connecticut.

This funding, provided from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan Act recognizes that the tristate area was among the hardest hit by the pandemic and provides the resources necessary for the nation’s largest subway, commuter rail, and bus services located in these states to avoid layoffs, furloughs, and severe service reductions.

Vax for kids

Hochul was at the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center in Westchester County, just north of the Bronx, on Tuesday to drum up support for vaccinating children.

Hochul said that the number-one question she gets from press and parents alike is: When can we stop having the kids wear masks in schools?

“The key to doing that is getting them vaccinated,” said Hochul.

The state has over 700 doses of the authorized Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids, with 300,000 doses for New York City alone, Hochul said.

While a rush to vaccinate is anticipated since the authorization is new, she said, “At some point, if the parents are any indicator, it’s going to level off.”

The kids getting vaccinated at the health center on Tuesday each received a $50 gift card with their first shot, with another $50 card promised when they get the second shot.

But the state is offering a greater incentive than that with its “Vaccinate, Educate, Graduate” program. Parents of kids ages 5 through 11 who are vaccinated between Nov. 22 and Dec. 20 can enter a drawing to win what the governor called a “free ride” to any state college or university. Fifty winners will be selected for a scholarship that includes tuition, room, and board.

“There’s a lot of lies floating around and unfortunately people are believing the lies,” Hochul said.

Consequently, the state has a vaccination kit for parents and a vax-for-kids campaign. “We’re going to have social media messages, posters, information cards, kid-friendly stickers, translating all the documents in different languages so everybody understands how important this is,” said Hochul. “Again, this will unlock the door to a normal existence for all of us, and it starts with the kids.”

She said the stickers will not only be designed by kids but judged and selected by kids.

Hochul noted that, with the start of the holiday season, families will gather. “Let’s make sure that grandma and grandpa who suffered so much to be away from the kids, do not get sick from children who are exposed to other kids,” said Hochul. “If everybody gets vaccinated, we’re going to protect all of our family members.”

Reverend Troy Decohen, pastor of the Mount Vernon Heights Congregational Church, told the crowd on Tuersday that a common thread running through the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religions is “to love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The purpose of getting vaccinated, he said, “is to save all of us.”

He described how, earlier in the pandemic, people died alone without family allowed to be by their side in hospitals. “That broke my heart,” said Decohen. By getting vaccinated, as kids do for measles, mumps, and rubella, he said, “We can end people dying alone.”

Mount Vernon’s mayor, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, said Mount Vernon was one of the poorest tracts in New York State and some call it dangerous. When COVID hit, she said, people were in despair.

If kids get vaccinated, she said, “We can see the smiles of children again.” She also said, “We are doing this through informed choice. This is not a Tuskegee study.”

“We are begging to be saved,” said the mayor, concluding, “I am melanated and vaccinated.”

Testing at GCSD

Starting on Nov. 15, Guilderland students who have COVID symptoms or who have been close to someone suspected of having the virus can be tested.

“We are offering this program as a convenience to families, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find COVID-19 testing with reasonable turnaround times,” Superintendent Marie Wiles wrote in an email to families on Monday. “We expect test results to be returned within 24-48 hours.”

She stressed that this is not a test-to-return or a test-to-stay program although in coming weeks the program may be expanded to meet those objectives.

Testing will be conducted in a building behind the Guilderland Center firehouse, on School Road, at 2 Dutchmen Lane. Testing will be available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. till noon but will be closed on holidays.

Tests will be self-administered but a nurse will be on hand to help. There is no charge for testing but health-insurance carriers will be billed directly.

No appointments are needed but participants must create a profile with Quadrant Biosciences before being tested.

Newest numbers

In Albany County’s 87th week of coping with the coronavirus, from Thursday, Nov. 4, through Wednesday, Nov. 10, the county has suffered four deaths from COVID-19 — bringing the county’s death toll from the virus to 430.

The victims include two men in their sixties, a man in his seventies, and a woman in her nineties, as announced by McCoy in his daily releases on COVID-19.

“The vast majority of COVID-related deaths are among the unvaccinated,” said McCoy in his Nov. 5 release. “During the months of September and October, there were 29 deaths in Albany County. Of those, only 31 percent were fully vaccinated.”

Also on Nov. 5, Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber, in his daily email updates on COVID-19, reported, “The Town’s EMS ambulances ended October having transported four positive COVID-19 residents, two from homes, one each from a doctor’s office and a hospital. September had six transports and August had eight transports. Before August 3, the last transport was on May 20.

“While a favorable trend, the scant data should not suggest that the pandemic is nearly over. With colder weather and longer nights coming, and a continuing stubbornly ‘high’ local infection rate, the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” continues and could be rapidly ended with the free, effective, and available vaccine.”

On Wednesday morning, McCoy reported 100 new COVID-19 cases. The county’s five-day average of new daily positive cases is now up to 86.4.

There are now 519 active cases in the county, up from 497 on Tuesday. The number of county residents under quarantine increased to 1,044 from 983.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Albany County continues to have a high rate of community transmission as does New York State and most of the United States. On Wednesday, the CDC map showed only two states — Florida and Georgia — with a moderate rate of transmission. In all of the other states, the transmission is labeled as substantial or high, meaning masks are to be worn indoors in public regardless of vaccination status.

On Wednesday morning, McCoy reported that, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6, there were 502 new COVID infections identified and analyzed in Albany County. Among those, 48 percent were vaccinated, 47 percent were not, and 5 percent refused to answer or the vaccination status was unknown.

McCoy also reported that there were four new hospitalizations since Tuesday, and there are now a total of 40 county residents hospitalized with the coronavirus. Nine of those hospital patients are in intensive-care units, an increase of one from Tuesday.

Of the county residents currently hospitalized with the virus, 45 percent are fully vaccinated, 7 percent are partially vaccinated, and 48 percent are unvaccinated. Among those who have been hospitalized to date since Aug. 14, the unvaccinated make up 61 percent of the total, while 36 percent were fully vaccinated and 3 percent were partially vaccinated.

McCoy also reported that, as of Tuesday, 73.3 percent of all Albany County residents have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, and 67.1 percent have been fully vaccinated. Among county residents 18 and older, 84.3 percent have received at least one dose of vaccine.

“While all of the COVID vaccination appointments for 5- to 11-year-olds at our county health department have been taken, I want to assure parents still looking to get their children vaccinated that there will be more options in the near future,” said McCoy in his Wednesday release. “We continue to work with our community partners, including school districts and pediatricians, to ensure there is access and equity when it comes to distribution.”