The Albany County Legislature is considering $500,000 to fund a new local develop corporation as well as $300,000 for small-business grants and support.

“If you want to stop the spread and you don’t want to shut businesses down again and you want to get back to somewhat of a new normal … we need your help,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

ALBANY COUNTY — Because of a spike in COVID-19 cases, the University at Albany shifted on Tuesday to fully remote learning for the remainder of the fall semester. 

As Albany County nears the apex of COVID-19 cases it had this spring, the county’s executive, Daniel McCoy, worries about another shutdown — which he says many small businesses wouldn’t survive. The state is now using a targeted approach, with restrictions tailored to areas with micro-clusters of the virus.

Stephen Thomas, SUNY Upstate Medical’s chief of Infectious Disease, has been appointed the lead principal investigator for the world-wide Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial. The SUNY medical school serves as one of the global third-phase vaccine trial locations.

So far this school year, Guilderland has had four cases of COVID-19 before the current case — two at Altamont Elementary and two at Guilderland High School.

The COVID-19 patient who died was a woman in her sixties, bringing the county’s COVID-19 death toll to 144.

A woman in her nineties with underlying health conditions died of the virus on Thursday. This brings the county’s COVID-19 death toll to 143.

New York’s micro-clusters, until now, had been in Brooklyn and Queens in New York City; in Orange and Rockland counties in the Mid-Hudson region; and in Broome, Steuben, and Chemung counties near the Pennsylvania border.

Project Growth participants earn money to repay the victims of their crimes while they build life skills combined with hands-on service projects, said William Connors who runs the program.