Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said on Thursday that points of dispensing, or PODs, will be set up in Albany on Saturday and in Ravena on Wednesday. “We know bringing small PODs directly to residents in their own neighborhoods is the best way to ensure trust and get to herd immunity, and we’re moving in the right direction,” McCoy said.

New York State’s guidance, just like the CDC guidance, is still requiring masks and social distancing in schools serving pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students; on public transit, in homeless shelters, in correctional facilities, in nursing homes, and in health-care settings. Unvaccinated individuals, under both CDC and state guidance, must wear masks in all public settings.

Albany County’s vaccination rate has slowed. “It’s now an increase by 2 percent each week. In the beginning, we were literally at 4 percent or more … We’re hitting that wall. We need to get more people vaccinated,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

Susan Mosher, Guilderland

The pandemic has made clear that accurate information can be a matter of life and death.

These local students have recently distinguished themselves:

— Emma Tessarzik of Berne, was named to the dean’s list for winter 2021 term at Elmira College with a grade point average of 3.6 or higher;

— Margaret Maney of Delmar, a bachelor of science degree in marketing graduated from The University of Tampa;

GUILDERLAND — Community Caregivers is working with medical students and social-work students at area colleges and universities to help seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The students receive academic “service learning” credit for their efforts.

“Because we were able to expand crisis stabilization, we actually improved the care for patients,” said Louis Filhour, chief executive officer for Better Health for Northeast New York. “We decreased and prevented them going to the emergency room. We prevented them from being admitted. We provided the services when they were needed and we helped to expand those hours.”