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Everardo Laboy
This is a roundup of coronavirus news and announcements from New York State and Hudson Valley and Catskills counties for Thursday, January 21 and Friday, January 22. Published in collaboration with The River.
Plans for federal vaccination sites run by FEMA and staffed by the National Guard are taking more concrete shape, The Washington Post reports. The plans also call for state and local governments to receive greater reimbursement for vaccine expenses from FEMA funding.
The number of cases of the B.1.1.7 variant found in New York State is now up to 25, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a Friday briefing. Two new cases were found in Westchester County. The state is sequencing about 1,000 cases a week to look for variants, health commissioner Howard Zucker said Friday. So far, neither the Brazilian variant P.1 nor the South African variant 501Y.V2, both of which are worrying epidemiologists, has been found in New York.
Risky school sports like basketball, football, and wrestling might start up again in your area soon, depending on what your local health department has to say about it. The latest guidance from the state Department of Health, published Friday, says that county health departments will have the power to decide when high-risk school sports resume, beginning February 1.
A couple of bills that would rein in fees paid to third-party food delivery apps like Seamless and Grubhub during the pandemic are making their way through the New York State legislature, State of Politics reports.
Latimer also said in the briefing that through Wednesday, nearly 11,000 residents had been given the vaccine at the two vaccination sites the county government is involved with. The Westchester County Center, which is run by the state government with assistance from county officials, had vaccinated 8,667 people in its first eight days of operation, and the White Plains County Health Clinic had vaccinated 2,207 people.
Putnam County administered 203 vaccine doses on Thursday in its fourth point of dispensing clinic. All of the shots went to essential workers, and the number was lower than the 300 doses the county was able to provide in its previous three clinics, as it received a reduced shipment this week. In a press release, the health department said it expects additional doses for a future clinic soon, but that none are scheduled currently. A clinic may still be announced for next week, depending on when and how many doses the county receives from the state.
Orange County is the latest community in the Hudson Valley seeking to limit the fees third-party delivery services charge eateries. The Orange County legislature will vote February 4 to limit the delivery fees to restaurants to 15 percent, plus 5 percent in other fees. The law would allow eateries charged more than this to ask the delivery service for a refund within seven days and allows them to sue if not refunded. The state Senate passed a bill capping the fees at 15 percent Tuesday that would supersede the Orange County law, but the bill has yet to be brought to the state Assembly.
Saugerties High School students, who have mostly been learning remotely or through a hybrid model, have been struggling with ersatz in-person learning, Hudson Valley One reports, with a high number of students failing at least one class or being chronically absent. The district is discussing a three-tiered credit recovery program for the spring allowing students to complete old assignments or better grades on prior courses.
Sullivan County Public Health held its first vaccine clinic for 165 essential workers on Thursday. On Friday, the county began vaccinating people 65 and over, in the first of a series of clinic days that filled up quickly after being opened for registration.
Delaware County Public Health announced in a Friday press release that it had held a vaccination clinic on Thursday for people in the 1B eligibility group. The county did not make any public announcements about appointments being available before the clinic. County public health officials are encouraging elderly residents who want to be vaccinated to contact the county Office for the Aging at (607) 832-5750. The latest press release also states that employers located in the county seeking vaccinations for their eligible workers should email the county at dc...@co.delaware.ny.us, but the county has not released any information about what eligible workers themselves can do to sign up for vaccination, or indicated whether it will vaccinate eligible workers who are living in Delaware County and working elsewhere.
Appointments filled up within a few minutes for a Friday Schoharie County vaccination clinic for people 65 and older, public health officials said Thursday. County health officials say they are getting limited doses from the state, but they encourage eligible people to keep checking back to sign up, as they will continue to make appointments available.
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