The hope is that, with three-foot distancing, school buildings can accommodate more students. The Biden administration has been pushing to open elementary and middle schools by the end of the month.

“Albany County now has the highest first dose vaccination rate for any county in the Capital Region, and our full vaccination rate went up a full percentage point since yesterday, reaching just under 30 percent of the county’s population,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

“The principal mode by which people are infected with SARS-CoV-2 is through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus. In most situations, cleaning surfaces using soap or detergent, and not disinfecting, is enough to reduce risk,” the CDC says.

On Saturday, the first high school vaccine clinic will be held, in Bethlehem, with Crestwood Pharmacy, said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

Tuesday marked the first day that any New Yorker 16 or older would be eligible for vaccination. 

Only six counties in New York have immunized a higher rate of their senior citizens than Albany County, whose strong numbers appear to be due in part to several county-led initiatives.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer announced from a grill in Amsterdam that restaurants across the state are eligible for their own federal pandemic relief through the American Rescue Plan.

The state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, released an analysis showing “job losses from the pandemic and the ensuing economic shutdown were swift and deep: employment in New York declined by nearly 2 million jobs from February to April 2020.”

He reported on new data released by the state’s Department of Labor that shows less than half of the jobs lost during that time have been recovered, and employment is still more than 1 million jobs below its pre-pandemic levels.

In the United States, by mid-March, the variant B.1.1.7, first identified in the United Kingdom, which has spread throughout Europe, accounted for 27 percent of the COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is up from 1 percent at the start of February.

Currently, any New Yorker who is 30 or older is eligible as well as people with a listed comorbidity or a listed essential job. Starting on Tuesday, any New Yorker age 16 or older will be eligible.