Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy sounded the alarm Wednesday because the county had 44 new COVID-19 cases, the highest one-day total since May 20. Throughout the week, the state announced initiatives to feed, house, and insure New Yorkers suffering from the coronavirus shutdown.

The state has set up a program, with federal funds, to provide aid for tenants who lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County is down $16 million from where it was last year for second-quarter sales-tax revenues, the county’s executive Daniel McCoy, reported on Monday.

He termed the 25-percent drop from a year ago “a very huge hit.”

The Karner blue butterfly, which lost 99 percent of its population when it was protected as endangered 28 years ago, is making a dramatic comeback this summer in the Albany Pine Bush.

“We’re starting to see a slight uptick in cases, which is a big concern,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen, noting, “It only takes a small number of cases to start … exponential growth of COVID in the county.”

“Numbers speak,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy as he noted that the Capital Region, among New York’s 10 regions, is tied with the Southern Tier, for second lowest in percentage of positive tests, at 0.7 percent; the very lowest is the North County at 0.1 percent.

“We tried some things at the organizational meeting and really quickly, maybe a month later, we realized that maybe those weren’t the right steps so we got those boards back reinstated pretty quickly,” said Berne Supervisor Sean Lyons on Friday.

While President Donald Trump and Republican State Assembly members are calling for schools to reopen this fall, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that the state will decide during the first week of August, based on data, whether schools will reopen then. The state’s Regents chancellor, acting education commissioner, and the largest teachers’ union all backed the governor’s announcement. Plans to reopen schools are due from the state’s more than 700 districts on July 31.

On the heels of the Fourth of July weekend, Albany County Health commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said the county has been receiving complaints of residents who are returning from visits to listed states. Whalen urged those residents to contact the health department, to follow the 14-day required quarantine, and to get tested.

Calling Guilderland’s fall reopening plan “a work in progress,” Superintendent Marie Wiles said, “We have not made any decisions on the structure … We’re doing our homework. We’re waiting for key guidance on the amount of distance we have to provide between and among students.”