ALBANY COUNTY — On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo released much anticipated guidance for the new metrics that will define micro-cluster zones as part of his winter plan to combat COVID-19.

The data will be calculated using the new metrics over the weekend, he said, and any new zones will be announced on Monday.

ALBANY COUNTY — Workers at the county’s airport started being tested on Friday for COVID-19 using saliva swabs. By the end of the month, the airport hopes to offer the test to travelers, too, a spokesman said.

As many small businesses, hit hard by COVID-19 and restrictions to prevent its spread, struggle to make lease payments, a new program may help.

“We’ve learned a lot about how to care for patients with COVID so, when they come in, when we first diagnose them, we give them a cocktail of treatments right out of the gates,” Venditti said, naming  remdesivir, an antiviral medication; convalescent plasma, using blood from people who have recovered from COVID-19; and dexamethasone, a corticosteroid medication.

ALBANY COUNTY — In its 39th week of coping with COVID-19, Albany County broke several records more than once, and the county executive, Daniel McCoy, announced nine deaths from the disease, starting with five last Thursday.

With a continuing surge in COVID-19 cases, the county’s health department is deluged with calls and is experiencing a backlog, its commissioner said. She urged residents who test positive for the virus to look at guidance for isolation on the department’s website, and residents who have been exposed to COVID-19 to look for guidance on following quarantine protocols.

The county’s $719.3 million spending plan for next year is down significantly from this year’s adjusted budget, which is now set to be $747.3 million — up about $14 million from what was originally proposed around this time last year.

ALBANY COUNTY — Governor Andrew Cuomo today directed the state’s health department to begin the surge-and-flex protocol that will have all hospitals expand their bed capacity by 25 percent to handle surges of COVID-19.

Albany County announced 143 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, continuing a recent trend of over100 new cases a day.

Judy Carey Nevin, right, says kindness and compassion are important to her. “Kindness is so easy and it’s free,” she says on this week’s podcast.