The last time Albany County issued a mask advisory was in early December. It was issued jointly with Schenectady County as infection rates, after Thanksgiving gatherings, surged, topping the rates from a year ago. The Delta variant was still dominant.

“This virus continues to spread at a rapid rate, though the number of individuals in our hospitals is remaining relatively low and stable for now,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy on Friday. 

Albany Med has been awarded a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how carbon dioxide and metabolism impact chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

New Yorkers must wear masks on buses and in bus stations, on trains and in train stations, on subways and in subway stations, and in airports. They also must mask at homeless and domestic-violence shelters, correctional facilities, and state-regulated health-care and adult-care facilities and nursing homes.

ALBANY COUNTY — Jessica Serfilippi started her groundbreaking and myth-busting research on Alexander Hamilton the way she thinks any historian should — with an open mind, she says.

These local students were named to the fall 2021 dean’s list at Le Moyne College, with a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher:

— Zachary Madeo,of Voorheesville, majoring in nursing; 

— Jordyn Sommo of Guilderland, majoring in nursing ;

— Claudia Reilly of  Voorheesville,  majoring in psychology;

These local students receive SUNY Oneonta scholarships:

— Sarah Alden of Altamont, John Ben Snow Fellowship Fund;

— Sabrina Balzan of Slingerlands, OAS Scholarship for Nutrition, Dietetics, Food Service & Restaurant Administration & Fields of Simil;

“The bigger ecological story here is the fact that the beetles can damage the pine stands — that is more a symptom of an ecosystem’s health,” says Neil Gifford, the conservation director for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

Robert C. Lawrence and his wife, Carol Ann, were kayaking on an Adirondack lake, watching some loons, when she asked him how the mountain looming over them, Blue Mountain, got its name.

Lawrence thought he’d buy a book on Adirondack place names at the Blue Mountain Museum to answer the question. But there was no such book.