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.

On July 16, Governor Kathy Hochul announced $567 million is being made available to low-income households statewide to pay off past electric and gas bills.

The Food and Drug Administration’s Advisory Committee on Wednesday approved expanding emergency use authorization for the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for children from six months through 5 years old.

After the FDA makes a final decision, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make its recommendation.

While the picture in New York generally improved this week as most of the state has counties with low or medium community levels of COVID-19 — Albany County, for the first time in nearly two months, was deemed “medium” last Friday — most of the nation is seeing an upward trend in cases and in hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Food and Drug Adminstration’s advisory committee met to consider authorizing a fourth vaccine against COVID, made by Novavax. And the FDA is expected to make a decision shortly on allowing Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines to be used for children younger than 5.

A report by the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, released on Friday, said challenges continue for New York’s Unemployment Trust Fund.

Since late December, 81,720,820 tests have been distributed throughout New York, the governor’s office reported, adding that, of the over 100 million tests procured, nearly 20 million tests have been stockpiled to help prepare for any potential surges later this year.

The study also found that COVID-19 survivors have twice the risk for developing pulmonary embolism or respiratory conditions than people who haven’t had COVID.

The CDC has tracked data that shows, from January 2021 to March 2022, Americans 18 and older who were unvaccinated were about five times more likely to be hospitalized than those who were up to date on vaccinations. Also, Americans age 12 and older who were unvaccinated were 17 times more likely to die from COVID-19.

“As the Omicron variant emerged in New York State, the number of people who have been infected with COVID for a second time has increased dramatically,” the state’s health department reports.