“As of today, following the science, scrimmages and games can start if the school has submitted everything they need to submit,”said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

The latest residents to succumb to the virus are  a woman in her eighties and a man in his nineties, bringing Albany County’s death toll to 332.

As of Feb. 6, Albany County had administered 90 percent of its doses, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard, which now also tracks statewide demographic data.

The governor’s office on Friday released numbers on three different groups eligible for COVID-19 vaccination — hospital workers, essential workers, and people 65 and older — which showed, in each group, Blacks were under-represented.

Nursing students at Maria College are “battle hardened” as they help during the pandemic, said the college’s president. Similarly, the president of Russell Sage College says his students are learning life lessons about serving the common good.

Hospitals across the state have one more week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday, to vaccinate their workers then that allotment of vaccine doses will be shifted to vaccinate adults of any age with comorbidities. He also said that 94 percent of the people who die from COVID are people with comorbidities or other underlying conditions. 

New York City’s Mayor, Bill de Blasio, requested on Wednesday that the city be allowed to administer second COVID-19 vaccine doses as first doses.

On Thursday, the state’s health commissioner, Howard Zucker, denied that request, citing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Workers at the county’s board of elections had a recent outbreak of COVID-19 but aren’t eligible for vaccinations, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said on Thursday. McCoy went on to name a half-dozen county departments — the clerk’s office, human resources, finance, mental health, public works, and social services — where workers are not eligible for shots.

At Wednesday’s county press briefing, Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen, said, “We have noticed a continued downward trend in the number of cases that we are seeing. We are definitely off of the holiday surge and I’ll go so far today as to say it’s encouraging.” However, she cautioned residents to remain vigilant; to follow protocols of mask-wearing, social-distancing, and not gathering; and to continue to isolate if infected and to quarantine if exposed to COVID-19.

Albany County has 55,000 residents over the age of 65, all of whom would be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations. With Mohawk Ambulance’s trailers, which can each hold 8,000 vaccine doses, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said, “Now we’re coming to you.”