“It will be through due diligence and science that this decision will be made,” said Albany County Health Commissioner of whether high-risk sports will be allowed.

Counties with populations of at least 200,000 — Albany County has about 320,000 residents — were eligible to apply for federal funds to help landlords, County Executive Daniel McCoy said as he praised county staff for turning around an application in just three days.

“When it comes to this vaccine, access has to be fair all across the board,”said Governor Andrew Cuomo. “We’re working with 300 churches to distribute the vaccine. We’re working with public housing authorities all across the state.”

The CDC study says this about the implications for public-health practice: “Additional implementation of effective mitigation activities at colleges and universities with in-person instruction could minimize on-campus COVID-19 transmission and reduce county-level incidence.” Those were the sort of strategies addressed by three higher-education leaders in Albany County.

On Friday, three more New York cases of the high transmissible B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19, first identified in the United Kingdom, were announced.

This brings the state’s tally to 25.

Two of the new cases are in Westchester and one in Kings County, said Governor Andrew Cuomo at his press briefing on Friday.

Health-care workers are to be vaccinated in hospitals, essential workers are to be vaccinated by city and county health departments or through unions, and people 65 or older are to be vaccinated by pharmacies and mass sites run by the state.

Some good numbers on Thursday came from the state’s Department of Labor, which announced the fifth straight month of declining unemployment rates in New York.

GUILDERLAND — The school district here, which started surveillance testing for COVID-19 on Jan. 15, announced today that a student at Pine Bush Elementary School had tested positive.

“I just don’t want to wait that long,” one elderly woman with diabetes told The Enterprise when asked about scheduling a traditional appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sounded the alarm on the highly transmissible variant of COVID-19 first identified in the United Kingdom, hastening the urgency for vaccination distribution.