“While New York as a whole is showing signs of statewide COVID infections possibly hitting their peak, that is clearly not the case for Albany County as we report nearly 1,600 new positive cases in a single day, the highest increase we’ve ever experienced since the pandemic started nearly two years ago,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

The New York Coalition for Open Government, a not-for-profit advocate for government transparency, says it filed two Freedom of Information Law requests with the Albany County Board of Elections for meeting minutes last summer, but the board never acknowledged either.

“We will no longer be doing contact tracing because the numbers of new daily positive cases is too high to keep up with in a time sensitive way,” Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen wrote in an email Wednesday morning, answering Enterprise questions. “We ask that those who test positive notify those who have been around them so they may take appropriate action,” Whalen said.

These local students were named to the dean’s list or received a similar honor from their college or university:

— Madison Demarest of Rotterdam, in the summer 2021 semester dean’s list at Palmer College of Chiropractic's Florida in Port Orange with a grade point average of 3.5 or higher;

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

— Emma Carter of Delmar, majoring in english;

— Elizabeth French of Guilderland, is majoring in history;

These local students were named to the dean’s list at Hudson Valley Community College for the fall 2019 semester with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher:

— Aigerim Kratz of Delmar, majoring in accounting;

— Gwendolyn Elliott of Schenectady, majoring in accounting;

These local students were named to the president’s list at Hudson Valley Community College for the fall 2019 semester with a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher:

— Catherine Ingleston of Voorheesville, majoring in accounting;

— Latosha Miller of Delmar, majoring in accounting;

“Another of the finest generation has left us. George Taylor Myers, 92, of New Salem (Thacher Park), New York left this earthly realm on 12 December 2021,” wrote his family in a tribute.

Albany County distributed 1,000 of its 10,000 free COVID tests through Stewrt’s Shops to try to reach rural residents while Guilderland used an online sign-up to distribute its allotment of tests.