The Wadsworth Center “immediately enhanced” early detection efforts in New York state, looking to identify the new BA.2.86 variant, and is working in conjunction with analysts of wastewater data at Syracuse University. Looking back at the last six months, they found the new strain was not detected in New York.

The level of the virus RNA “can tell us roughly how many cases can be expected in a population,” says the most recent report on Albany County’s wastewater surveillance. For Albany’s North Plant, the detection level suggests a daily case incidence of 10 to 50 cases per 100,000 people. The same is true for the Bethlehem plant. Albany’s South Plant and Guilderland’s facility each had a detection level suggesting more than 50 cases per 100,000 people, the report says.

ALBANY COUNTY — The pandemic — or at least the government declarations of emergency it engendered — is ending not with a bang but a whimper.

Last month, the Biden administration announced that it would spend $1.1 billion to provide free COVID vaccinations to uninsured Americans after the vaccines are commercially marketed.

ALBANY COUNTY — The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has supported a second booster vaccine against COVID-19 for people 65 and older and for people who are immunocompromised.

Because of federal pandemic aid, each United States resident received on average $8,050 more in federal expenditures on their behalf than they paid in federal taxes,says a report released this week by the state comptroller. This contrasts with 2019 and prior years, when New York and a handful of other states had a negative balance of payments with the federal government. 

ALBANY COUNTY — People living in nearly 7,000 group homes across New York state were at risk during the pandemic, according to an audit of the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities released this week by the state’s comptroller, Thom

A special enrollment period has been set up by Health and Human Services to help people who lose Medicaid between March 31, 2023 and July 31, 2024, move to the Obamacare marketplace: https://www.healthcare.gov/.

After a pandemic-induced moratorium on evictions that lasted almost two years, ending early in 2022, proceedings have topped pre-pandemic levels in 40 out of 62 counties statewide, according to an analysis by Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Albany County saw filings for 8 percent of renter households in 2022, according to the Eviction Filings Dashboard. The county, with 55,849 renter-occupied units, had 4,362 filings last year.

“The classroom disruptions caused by the pandemic have hurt New York’s students,” said Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli this week as he announced the results of his analysis. “Academic losses were greater for younger students, with fourth grade scores dropping more than the national average. School districts must act quickly to take full advantage of available resources to help students that are most in need get caught up, before time runs out.”