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.

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.

Boosters are recommended because the effectiveness of the vaccine wanes over time.

The rubric of vaccination rates being lower in rural areas holds in Albany County as well, according to the state’s tracker, reported by ZIP code.

As of Tuesday night, for people getting at least one shot, Coeymans Hollow has a rate of 47.5 percent; South Bethlehem, 58.1 percent; and Medusa, 68.3 percent. Clarksville and Berne were in the seventies while Preston Hollow and Westerlo were in the eighties.

Meanwhile, Delmar, Slingerlands, Guilderland Center, Voorheesville and Altamont ZIP codes all have populations in which more than 99 percent have received a vaccination.

“This is an opportunity in this post-pandemic world to let people know, get the skills, go into apprenticeship programs, get trained,” said Governor Kathy Hochul, speaking from the county’s airport on Monday enroute to the White House for the signing of the infrastructure bill. “There’s jobs waiting for you to help rebuild this great state after we were knocked down so far.”

On Wednesday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Biden-Harris Administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be making $750 million in additional American Rescue Plan funding available for New York’s Essential Plan.

Last year, international visits were down 86 percent from 2019, and domestic visits fell by 37 percent, generating a nearly 55-percent loss in direct spending and an almost 50-percent drop in economic impact — estimated at $100 billion in 2019.

These new sites are part of a string of sites that the company has installed in Albany County in recent years.

The legislation would prohibit the disturbance of county-owned forests that span more than a half-acre unless the county executive places twice the value of the removed trees into a fund to be used to plant more trees.