In Albany County, 198 new COVID-19 cases were announced on Saturday with another 173 announced on Sunday.

ALBANY COUNTY — On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo released much anticipated guidance for the new metrics that will define micro-cluster zones as part of his winter plan to combat COVID-19.

The data will be calculated using the new metrics over the weekend, he said, and any new zones will be announced on Monday.

The Guilderland Central School District is asking parents for permission to test their children for COVID-19 should the state require it.

As many small businesses, hit hard by COVID-19 and restrictions to prevent its spread, struggle to make lease payments, a new program may help.

“We’ve learned a lot about how to care for patients with COVID so, when they come in, when we first diagnose them, we give them a cocktail of treatments right out of the gates,” Venditti said, naming  remdesivir, an antiviral medication; convalescent plasma, using blood from people who have recovered from COVID-19; and dexamethasone, a corticosteroid medication.

ALBANY COUNTY — In its 39th week of coping with COVID-19, Albany County broke several records more than once, and the county executive, Daniel McCoy, announced nine deaths from the disease, starting with five last Thursday.

“It’s like I’m the keeper of their stories,” Cindy Pollard once said of using her Home Front Café as a memory trove for veterans. “They’re important, each and every one of them … For the ground soldiers in the Pacific, it was kill or be killed. They saw such horror, they can’t talk about it … If they do, they’re back there. They smell the smells and have weeks of bad dreams.”

Beginning on Thursday, Dec. 10, Guilderland students in eighth through 12th grade will learn from home due to staff shortages caused by quarantine requirements.

With a continuing surge in COVID-19 cases, the county’s health department is deluged with calls and is experiencing a backlog, its commissioner said. She urged residents who test positive for the virus to look at guidance for isolation on the department’s website, and residents who have been exposed to COVID-19 to look for guidance on following quarantine protocols.

ALBANY COUNTY — Governor Andrew Cuomo today directed the state’s health department to begin the surge-and-flex protocol that will have all hospitals expand their bed capacity by 25 percent to handle surges of COVID-19.