These local students have recently distinguished themselves:

— Jacob Marrello of Slingerlands Earned a Year-End Men's Hockey Award at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and

On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced 12 steps that must be taken by regions across the state as part of an evolving phased reopening plan. One of those steps is that each region has to set up a testing regimen, prioritizing people with symptoms and people who have come into contact with someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19.

Urgent-care centers, said Jonathan Halpert, M.D., are “uniquely positioned” to help with COVID-9. New York State has about 800 urgent-care centers, with about 30 in Albany County, he said.

ALBANY COUNTY — In the midst of the pandemic, Albany County is particularly concerned about its “vulnerable populations,” said Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen and last weekend did an extensive investigation of “cases and contacts.”

“We have people downstate who need food. We have farmers upstate who can’t sell their product. We have to put those two things together,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced results of the second phase of statewide antibody testing, which showed 14.9 percent of New Yorkers have antibodies to COVID-19. Results from the first round of these finger-prick blood tests showed that 13.9 percent of New Yorkers had had the disease. The rates are far higher downstate than upstate.

The state will adjust its phased reopening plan, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, as it continues to monitor the hospitalization rate, the infection rate, and the number of positive antibody tests, as well as the overall public health impact.

The food that the National Guard is distributing to quarantined county residents, like the food being distributed to pantries, is “not just canned food,” says Mark Quandt, executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. Rather, it includes produce, meat, milk and other dairy products “so people can eat normally and not take a big step back and hurt their health at the same time,” he says.

Albany County now has 915 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up 51 from Saturday. The county executive attributed the continuing increase to aggressive testing. 

“Forty to 50 percent of businesses, retail businesses may not reopen … That’s a sad and hard truth but also out of this, you’re going to have innovation, you’re going to have people who are doing things that they never thought they could do,” said local business owner Tom Nardacci.