The governor’s office on Friday reported two virus-related deaths in Albany County as well as a statewide total so far of 178 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.

Acting Health Commissioner Mary Bassett displayed a graph showing infection rates in Norway and Denmark: Once Omicron appeared, the graph lines went nearly straight up. Bassett described the two Scandinavian countries as being “highly vaccinated,” and as having populations with an age distribution more like the United States than South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first reported.

Vaccination, Hochul said on Tuesday, should have been a turning point in the war against COVID-19. “We still have 30 percent of New Yorkers who are not fully vaccinated … This is a crisis of the unvaccinated. Did not have to be — totally preventable.”

ALBANY COUNTY — Nearly a quarter of the county’s probationers — 307 — lack a high school education.

A new program will give them a chance to earn their High School Equivalency, or HSE, diploma.

“I think just because you wear a uniform that you are no more deserving of pandemic pay than people who work, like in Darci’s office,” said Supervisor Peter Barber.

Councilwoman Rosemary Centi recalled how originally town residents had not been charged for ambulance services. “We took whatever their insurance paid,” she said.

The town’s attorney, James Melita, said that waste from Guilderland’s annual Hazardous Waste Day was trucked to a site in George where it was not disposed of properly.

The Sept. 13 complaint from unnamed health-care workers said they held the sincere religious belief that they “cannot consent to be inoculated . . . with vaccines that were tested, developed or produced with fetal cell line[s] derived from procured abortions.”

“It won’t stop all incidents,” said Matthew Pinchinat, Guilderland’s director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. “But it will show we do take them seriously.”

A violation of the state requirement for everyone to wear masks indoors when in public “is subject to all civil and criminal penalties, including a maximum fine of $1,000 for each violation,” according to the governor’s office. Local health departments are being asked to enforce these requirements.