Two more Albany County residents have died of COVID-19, the county’s executive, Daniel McCoy, reported on Monday, bringing the death toll to 138. He also said that, since the start of the pandemic, suicides and deaths from drug overdoses in the county are “through the roof.”

Once there is a vaccine for COVID-19, the first New Yorkers to receive it will be health-care workers in patient-care settings, long-term-care facility workers, and the at-risk patients in those facilities, according to the state’s plan released on Sunday.

As New York State tests heavily in COVID-19 hotspots, it reached a record of test results in a single day on Saturday, nearly 160,000.

“Albany County departments provide many of the services LEAD uses and this money is a game-changer during a financially challenging time and one in which mental health and addiction issues have increased,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an expansion of food stamps, now called SNAP, to nearly 75,000 low-income college students who are enrolled in career or technical education courses.

The White House responded today to yesterday’s request from the National Governors Association to meet with the president for “guidance and clarification” on the role states will play in distributing COVID-19 vaccines, once available.

Albany County continues to have an uptick in COVID-19 cases as Governor Andrew Cuomo looks ahead to distributing vaccines, requesting a meeting with the president.

On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that state aid would be withheld from schools that remain open in so-called “red zones,” where the coronavirus is prevalent, and, further, that municipalities in those red zones that are not enforcing closures will also have state aid withheld.

While Governor Andrew Cuomo is still being criticized for large numbers of nursing-home deaths during the height of the pandemic in New York, an association of long-term care facilities is pushing for less restrictive regulations for testing and for visitors.

Jacob Crawford, Albany County’s new Democratic chairman, said of Randy Bashwinger, the new county GOP chairman, “He’s interested in taking his brand of politics to the suburban towns in the county to try to win some of those races. I would look forward to the competition. I think the Trump style of politics is not what the suburban voters of Albany County are interested in or are looking for, and I look forward to taking the competition up to him in the Hilltowns.”