“There is no legitimate health reason,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters today of the current federal request for an identification number to administer COVID-19 vaccines, calling it an attempt to extort information that could be used to deport people. “I will not do it. I wouldn’t do it when they extorted me on [the] Trusted Traveler Program, and I won’t do it now,” said Cuomo.

To keep donors safe, a table for holiday gifts will be set up at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland from Nov. 8 to 13 and there will also be a drive-through for gifts to be dropped off on Nov. 21.

Over six months ago, Albany County set up a program to test residents in underserved neighborhoods for COVID-19. Today, New York’s governor and attorney general along with leaders of the NAACP and National Urban League called the Trump administration’s plan for distributing vaccines racist because it ignored the same communities that had been overlooked for testing.

As COVID-19 cases continue to spike in the county, two more elderly residents have died of the disease.

“It could take one year to vaccinate the population using only a private sector network. This country can’t afford to take one year to do vaccinations,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo today of the White House plan for distributing COVID-19 vaccines.

With 53 new COVID-19 cases overnight and the highest hospitalization rate since June, county workers will be on staggered shifts and working remotely.

Albany County’s health department is having workers carry on their essential duties from home after four employees tested positive for COVID-19.

“We’re playing Whac-A-Mole with the micro-clusters,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday. “You get a micro-cluster that flares up, we attack it, more restrictions, it drops, another micro-cluster pops up and what we’re seeing obviously nationwide is a very threatening rate of increase, and so far, knock wood, New York has defied that rate of increase.”

Seventy-two county residents have died of overdoses in the first nine months of 2020, a 44-percent increase over last year.

This year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, the need for donated toys will be much greater but, at the same time, collecting the toys will be more difficult, according to Marine Corps Reserve Staff Sergeant Patrick Lurenz.