Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said that both the masks and the tests will be distributed to county municipalities based on population.

Jessyka and Keven Brunk are perfectly matched — both as a couple and as creators of fantasy gingerbread marvels.

“Jessyka went to school for painting and art, and so she’s always been very involved with that,” says Keven in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

None of these leaders, from the local, state, and federal levels, minimized the risks of the latest variant of concern, the highly contagious Omicron variant. On Monday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the Omicron variant now accounts for about 70 percent of new cases in the United States. Rather, they stressed the importance of getting vaccinated and boosted as well as wearing masks.

Mark E. Glogowski, Ph.D., Hamlin, New York

Two mental-health response teams have assisted over 100 people with roughly 240 incidents as of this month, which serves both those who are experiencing mental-health crises and traditional first responders who are not always necessary to handle those types of emergency calls. 

The state is making $65 million available to counties to cover costs associated with state protocols — at least $1 million will be available to small counties and up to $2 million for larger counties, Hochul said. The money can be used for purchasing masks, or putting up signs, or setting up call centers for people to make complaints.

“We want people to reconnect with their families, so critically important emotionally, particularly for our older residents, people who’ve been suffering from isolation during most of this, we need those connections and there is a very, very, very safe way to do it … which is simply getting people boosted and continuing to wear the mask,” said Governor Kathy Hochul on Saturday.

The governor’s office on Friday reported two virus-related deaths in Albany County as well as a statewide total so far of 178 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.

Acting Health Commissioner Mary Bassett displayed a graph showing infection rates in Norway and Denmark: Once Omicron appeared, the graph lines went nearly straight up. Bassett described the two Scandinavian countries as being “highly vaccinated,” and as having populations with an age distribution more like the United States than South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first reported.

Vaccination, Hochul said on Tuesday, should have been a turning point in the war against COVID-19. “We still have 30 percent of New Yorkers who are not fully vaccinated … This is a crisis of the unvaccinated. Did not have to be — totally preventable.”