The food that the National Guard is distributing to quarantined county residents, like the food being distributed to pantries, is “not just canned food,” says Mark Quandt, executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. Rather, it includes produce, meat, milk and other dairy products “so people can eat normally and not take a big step back and hurt their health at the same time,” he says.

Albany County now has 915 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up 51 from Saturday. The county executive attributed the continuing increase to aggressive testing. 

“Forty to 50 percent of businesses, retail businesses may not reopen … That’s a sad and hard truth but also out of this, you’re going to have innovation, you’re going to have people who are doing things that they never thought they could do,” said local business owner Tom Nardacci.

“We can’t test you if you have no signs … We just can’t afford to do it right now,” says Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy of diagnostic tests for COVID-19.

“Our members are scared about … what’s going to happen with their business and also how will they open up,” said Maureen McGuinness, president of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. “Can their business survive in a post-pandemic world?”

 “The strategy is to get them off the street, provide a safe haven, and hopefully they’ll start to work with our staff on some counseling,” said Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple of the wing of jail that now houses a handful of homeless people. “The ultimate goal is to get them back employed. 

“We’re still getting 20 to 30 positives a day,” said Albany County’s health commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen. “We’re still at that plateau level.”

On Friday, two dozen State Assembly members, led by Patricia Fahy, called on New York’s senators and congress members to create a modern-day, New Deal-style Works Progress Administration similar to the jobs program that was created by the federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

“We continue to see our numbers plateau,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen, with 20 to 30 cases per day

 “Every single system, every single way that we operate, we had to rethink in the last month,” said Marie Wiles, superintendent of the Guilderland schools.