The “vast majority” of the vaccinated cases infected with COVID-19 between Aug. 2 and 6 were young adults, said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy. “Six vaccinated infections were from the 10- to 19-year-old age range,” said McCoy. Vaccine is not authorized for anyone under age 12.

Local school superintendents were taken aback last Thursday when the state’s health commissioner summarily announced his department would be providing no guidance for the opening of schools in the midst of a surge of COVID-19 cases.

The United States is now averaging over 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day, which hasn’t happened since February, the CDC noted on Monday. The seven-day average of new cases has doubled in the last two weeks as has the death rate.

Albany County is nearing an infection rate of 5 percent as 80 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Saturday.

Guilderland is “strongly encouraging” face masks be worn indoors and Albany County, starting Monday, will require anyone in a county building to be masked — both regardless of vaccination status.

On Sunday, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Albany County has crossed over the line from “moderate” to “substantial” transmission of COVID-19, which triggers the new CDC guidance that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in public. The state has issued no directives on whether this guidance must be followed, with the governor saying it is up to individual municipalities to decide. As of Wednesday, Albany County — still in the substantial transmission zone — had issued no directives.

Nine new vaccination sites will open, including one at the Empire State Plaza’s concourse in Albany. With the first wave of the pandemic, in March of 2020, Cuomo used a state of emergency to issue executive orders. Currently, with no state of emergency declared, he said,  “Local governments are now trying to figure out how to deal with the local guidance.”

For the seven days running from July 25 to July 31, the CDC says, Albany County has an average of 54.34 cases per 100,000 population. Other nearby counties that, as of Sunday, were labeled as having “substantial” transmission were: Rensselaer at 66.79, Saratoga at 88.75, Schenectady at 59.24, and Schoharie at 54.84 per 100,000 population.

Beyond Sept. 30, the USDA will continue to support homeowners experiencing financial hardship due to the pandemic by making loss mitigation options available to help keep them in their homes. Homeowners and renters can visit www.consumerfinance.gov/housing for information on their relief options, protections, and key deadlines from federal agencies.

Governments this week started announcing they would require vaccination, and at the same time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its May guidance on masks, stating that, because of the Delta variant, people living in an area of substantial or high transmission should mask indoors in public.