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The state and the county continue to urge residents — even those without COVID-19 symptoms — to get tested for the disease despite new CDC guidelines that say otherwise.

The Berne Town Board voted, 3 to 2, to approve a new labor union contract that guarantees a 10-percent raise by 2022 for the town’s highway workers, in addition to new longevity pay bonuses. 

Cuomo and the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut — all Democrats — issued a joint statement on Thursday, saying, “This 180-degree reversal of COVID-19 testing guidelines is reckless, and not based on science and has the potential to do long-term damage to the institution’s reputation.”

The next move is the town’s planning board. 

On Monday, the CDC changed its guidelines to exclude testing people who do not show COVID-19 symptoms even if they have been exposed to the virus. In Albany County, and across New York State, the focus for months has been on increasing diagnostic testing, especially to identify the disease in people who may be spreading the disease before they show symptoms or who never show symptoms.

“The whole key to this is to get community involvement so that we foster that trust and fairness that I think we’re losing right now nationwide. It just opens up that dialogue so we’re all kind of on the same page, solving our problems together,” said Guilderland Police Chief Daniel McNally of the newly formed committee that will carry out the governor’s order to reform and reinvent the town’s police department.