As COVID-19 cases surge, regional hospitals, which are in daily contact, agreed on Monday to reduce non-urgent surgeries that require a hospital stay.

“Furloughs were not cost effective even in the future for the library,” Guilderland library trustee Barbara Fraterrigo said she learned. This is because staff put on furlough would be eligible for unemployment and, since the library is self-insured, “You reimburse the state for those funds anyway,” she said.

On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany is doing research to see if a new, highly-contagious strain of COVID-19, recently discovered in the United Kingdom, has already found its way here.

As COVID-19 cases surge, regional hospitals, which are in daily contact, agreed on Monday to reduce non-urgent surgeries that require a hospital stay.

When state funds are lacking, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at his Monday morning press briefing, “They have a habit of pushing that down to us on the county level. We have to be wary of that. It’s going to affect our programs.”

“Our numbers are going through the roof …,” Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said on Monday. “January’s going to be rough … It’s scary.”

Of the county nursing home’s 170 residents, 150 so far have agreed to get COVID-19 vaccinations. Only half of the home’s 200 workers have agreed.

Melissa Fleischut posited that, since the governor had announced that 74 percent of COVID-19 cases were contracted through “living-room spread,” that is, people having small gatherings in their homes, restaurants would be safer places for gatherings.

Every week, when John Williams sends me his Old Men of the Mountain column, he writes a note in his email — sometimes humorous, sometimes philosophical.

Last week, he wrote about all the Christmas preparations he and his wife, Marlene, had underway.

I’m ashamed to say, my email in return said this:

GUILDERLAND — New cases of COVID-19 were announced in two separate emails by Guilderland school leaders on Friday evening.

Superintendent Marie Wiles wrote that the district had learned of five cases either late on Thursday or on Friday.