Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at his Tuesday morning briefing, “Our report is pretty much done; we’re just waiting for sign-off from other counties.” In addition to Albany County, the Capital Region includes Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington counties.

The Albany County Health Department, said its commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen, is “working to make sure we have testing available and education available all across the county to every demographic to make sure everybody is aware of what they can do to prevent their risk and to be tested if they need to.”

Residents and staff at nursing homes now must be tested twice a week for COVID-19, and patients with the disease can no longer be housed at nursing homes but will, instead, stay in hospitals.

No inmates at the Albany County jail have contracted COVID-19, said Sheriff Craig Apple. New arrivals are quarantined for 14 days, Apple said, and all of the inmates and staff have masks.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said that the eight counties in the Capital Region — Albany, Columbia, Greene, Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Warren, and Washington — now meet five out of the seven metrics outlined by Governor Andrew Cuomo for reopening.

More than half of Albany County’s jobs fall in the second phase, outlined by the governor for reopening businesses, which would mean June at the earliest.

As the new cases of COVID-19 have dropped statewide, Albany County is still waiting to hit its apex.

“If you can open your heart and open your home, we would love to have you foster a child,” said Moira Manning, Albany County’s commissioner for the Department for Children, Youth and Families, giving this phone number to start the process: 518-447-7515.

“We received word overnight,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen at Friday’s press briefing of expanded testing at the University at Albany. “They’re looking to cast a much broader net of people that need to be screened or tested for COVID-19.”

“Every bit of every part of the work we do is rethought and needs to constantly be rethought again,” says Marie Wiles, superintendent of the Guilderland schools.