“It was confusing, very frustrating, stressful, the unknown, fear of the unknown, because this was the first fall when our expectation was that everybody went back to school,”Governor Kathy Hochul said at Monday’s press conference, going over back-to-school COVID protocols. This year’s landscape is different, she said, adding, “We’re expecting it to be a much, much easier year for parents and for schools.”

On Aug. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed standards, continuing a trend it had started earlier this year. In February, the CDC had shortened isolation times. The changes are part of a movement away from institutions enforcing COVID rules — the Albany County Health Department like others in New York State long ago stopped tracking COVID cases — and towards individuals taking their own measures to protect themselves.

This week, Albany County’s 126th of coping with the coronavirus, the governor’s office reported three virus-related deaths — one each on Aug. 4, 5, and 9 — in Albany County. This would bring Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll to 579 although, as of Tuesday, the county’s dashboard showed 578.

President Biden had taken Paxlovid to quell the worst COVID symptoms but nevertheless suffered a rebound infection. In June, the CDC had posted a study finding that reports of hospitalizations or emergency-room encounters occurred infrequently among patients taking Paxlovid, representing less than 1 percent of Paxlovid-treated patients over the study period.

ALBANY COUNTY — This week, the governor said the state will look at its pandemic past while at the same time she talked about proposals for containing COVID-19 in the near future.

Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are four times more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines than was BA.2.12.1, meaning breakthrough infections are more likely, according to a new study.

New York State has been allocated 8,822 doses of vaccine from the federal government with an additional allocation of 23,963 for New York City alone, the governor’s office reported in a release on Tuesday. Forty doses are for Albany County.

The current summer season has not seen the drastic dip of the past two summers on new cases nor on hospitalizations.

Before an expected winter surge of the coronavirus, a committee of experts at the Food and Drug Administration urged on Tuesday that booster shots be geared to combat subvariants of Omicron.

Americans are more likely now than at any point over the past year and a half to say their lives are completely back to pre-pandemic normalcy, according to a recent Gallup poll.