Dave A. Chokshi, the New York City’s health commissioner, said of the Omicron variant in New York State, “There is community spread.” The cases, he said, are not just from people traveling to Africa, where the Omicron variant was first reported, or to other locations where it has been identified.

 Only 16 percent of adult New Yorkers have gotten booster shots. Of New Yorkers age 65 and older, 37 percent have received booster shots. The shots are needed because COVID-19 vaccines lose effectiveness over time.

As the first case of the Omicron variant in the United States was reported today — a fully vaccinated traveler from South Africa, returning to California — Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Manhattan Congressman Jerry Nadler issued a joint statement on their congressional meeting today: 

Julian Branch, Regina, Saskatchewan

Ward Stone, Troy

Elizabeth “Betty”Ann Roney Winne — who loved exotic birds and flew to Paris to shop for clothes — died of multiple debilitating illnesses on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021, in Pasadena, Florida near her beloved daughter, Debora. She was 75.

As hospitalization rates approach what they were last April, hospitals in target areas will have non-essential, non-urgent procedures limited. The Capital Region, with just 10 percent of its hospital beds available, is one of the state’s three worst regions. The other two are the Finger Lakes at 9 percent and Central New York at 8 percent.

Shannon Duerr, Emma Treadwell Nature Center

Figures from a year ago — Oct. 24 to Nov. 24 — before the first vaccine was authorized, show better numbers in Albany County than the same time period this year. There are 1,000 more infections and two times the number of deaths, year over year.

Albany County suffered three COVID deaths this week: a man in his seventies died on Thursday, a man in his sixties died on Friday, and a woman in her nineties died on Saturday. Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll now stands at 439.