“We have 6,500 residents over the age of 65 in Albany County,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy. “We need to identify these places …. so we’re there to protect everyone going forward.”

Kevin Coffey, American Red Cross, Eastern New York Region, Albany

A new grant program was announced on Wednesday morning — funded for $500,000 — that will give up to $5,000 to businesses that qualify.

“We have paid out more than $59 billion in benefits to over 3.9 million unemployed New Yorkers during this crisis — nearly 28 typical years’ worth of benefits paid in 10 months — and we will continue to move heaven and earth to serve our neighbors,” said Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon. 

County officials throughout the week warned that the surge from Christmas gatherings had not yet run its course and urged residents not to party for New Year’s celebrations.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

James Herbert “Jim” Chmielinski, formerly of Berne, died on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. He was 73.

The New York Army National Guard has recently promoted:

— Breanna Center from Singerlands, assigned to the 1427th Transportation Company, who received a promotion to the rank of staff sergeant on Nov. 20; and

Under the state’s original micro-cluster system, which designated the most severe red zones followed by orange and yellow zones, Albany County would have been named a red zone, the county executive said. Now, the state’s focus is on hospital capacity, where the Capital Region is also struggling.

In two new executive orders on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo froze salaries for statewide elected officials and commissioners and he extended the state’s moratorium on evictions.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said the questions the state is trying to answer are: “Can you do it? Can you use testing to reopen a business safely? And can you do it on a large scale, which would be the Bills?”