The state will conduct outreach to the State Education Department and BOCES to survey needs for test kits and masks. After the requests have been submitted, the state will deliver the requested tests and N-95 and KN-95 masks to each BOCES for distribution to school districts.

The Wadsworth Center “immediately enhanced” early detection efforts in New York state, looking to identify the new BA.2.86 variant, and is working in conjunction with analysts of wastewater data at Syracuse University. Looking back at the last six months, they found the new strain was not detected in New York.

Children attending daycare and pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in New York state must receive all required doses of vaccines to attend or remain in school.

The level of the virus RNA “can tell us roughly how many cases can be expected in a population,” says the most recent report on Albany County’s wastewater surveillance. For Albany’s North Plant, the detection level suggests a daily case incidence of 10 to 50 cases per 100,000 people. The same is true for the Bethlehem plant. Albany’s South Plant and Guilderland’s facility each had a detection level suggesting more than 50 cases per 100,000 people, the report says.

ALBANY COUNTY — By Friday afternoon the air quality in Albany County had reached the “unhealthy” level with an index number of 158 because of particulate matter in the air caused by the wildfires in Canada.

Wildfire smoke downwind affects not just health but also wealth and mortality, according to new research from Cornell University, Nanjing University, and the University of Houston, published earlier this month.

ALBANY COUNTY — The Albany area on Thursday, June 15, along with part of the Adirondacks had “moderate” as opposed to “good” air quality, according to AirNow.gov, a website run in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Using data reported for “respiratory symptoms” on June 8 from Emergency Medical Services response data, which is a timely early-warning source, the health department observed a statewide increase of 17.8 percent in the rates per 100,000 on Wednesday, June 7, as compared to the average of the five-day period of June 1 through 5. At the same time, for the metropolitan New York City region, the increase was 28.4 percent and for the Capital Region, it was 12.4 percent.

ALBANY COUNTY — Speaking from the University at Albany on Wednesday evening, Governor Kathy Hochul said the poor air quality throughout most of the state caused by wildfires in Quebec was “unprecedented.”

Last month, the Biden administration announced that it would spend $1.1 billion to provide free COVID vaccinations to uninsured Americans after the vaccines are commercially marketed.