These local students have recently distinguished themselves:
 

— Stefanie DeFronzo of Voorheesville, was awarded the Walter F. and Alice Gorham Foundation, Inc. Prize in Jewish Studies at Drew University in New Jersey;

NEW SALEM — Eleanor Marie “Ellie” DeVellis, “was peacefully reunited in heaven with her husband, father, and mother on Wednesday, May 6, 2020,” her family wrote in a tribute. She was 88.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at his Tuesday morning briefing, “Our report is pretty much done; we’re just waiting for sign-off from other counties.” In addition to Albany County, the Capital Region includes Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington counties.

The Albany County Health Department, said its commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen, is “working to make sure we have testing available and education available all across the county to every demographic to make sure everybody is aware of what they can do to prevent their risk and to be tested if they need to.”

Residents and staff at nursing homes now must be tested twice a week for COVID-19, and patients with the disease can no longer be housed at nursing homes but will, instead, stay in hospitals.

GUILDERLAND — A new program, Checking on Our Neighbors, is connecting isolated seniors in Rensselaer County with volunteers who provide ongoing check-ins and assurance phone calls to combat loneliness.

Potentially cheaper energy rates will have to wait as municipalities deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

No inmates at the Albany County jail have contracted COVID-19, said Sheriff Craig Apple. New arrivals are quarantined for 14 days, Apple said, and all of the inmates and staff have masks.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said that the eight counties in the Capital Region — Albany, Columbia, Greene, Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Warren, and Washington — now meet five out of the seven metrics outlined by Governor Andrew Cuomo for reopening.