COVID-19

Press release:

New Cases – As of 2 p.m. 

• Genesee County received three new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Batavia and Pembroke.
  • One of the positive individuals is an inmate at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility. 
  • One of the individuals is in their 40s, one is in their 50s, and one is in their 60s.
  • None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Two of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.
  • Five new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
  •  
• Orleans County received six new positive cases of COVID-19.
• The new positive cases reside in Albion.
• The individuals are: three are 0-19 yrs. old, two are in their 40s, one is in their 50s.
• One of the new positive individuals is a student at Albion Elementary School. The individual was not in school 48 hours prior to becoming symptomatic and testing positive, there is no identified direct school contact. The individual is under mandatory isolation and will remain there until fully recovered. Contact tracing has been initiated to determine potential close contacts in the community.
• None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
• Three new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Press release:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, every educated voter is critical to our community. To support this, for the 40^th consecutive year, The Western New York Independent Living Family of Agencies (WNYIL) is giving voters with, and without, disabilities the opportunity to hear from, and ask questions of, officials running in the Nov. 3^rd General Election at their Annual Meet the Candidates Days. 

WNYIL, being committed to the voice of persons with disabilities, especially within the challenges of this pandemic, is moving the event virtually this year to continue to offer this important forum. 

With individual campaigning at a minimum this year, this gives voters the chance to hear from officials running for several different offices.

Candidates running for local, state, and federal office will be given the opportunity to talk to, and hear from, constituents via our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/WNYIL.

Already scheduled to appear include candidates running for Congress, NY State Senate, NY State Assembly, as well as several candidates running for local offices. WNYIL Chief Policy Officer, Todd Vaarwerk, points out that “even during the pandemic, legislators will still make decisions about the things that matter to persons with disabilities. Meet the Candidates allows them to know, directly from potential constituents, how important those decisions are.”

The New York State and Federal races Meet the Candidates Day will be Tuesday, Oct. 27^th from 1 to 4 p.m. The local races (Erie, Niagara, Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming counties) Meet the Candidates Day will be Friday, Oct. 30^th from 1 to 4 p.m. Both can be accessed at WNYIL’s YouTube channel.

For those without internet access who want to listen to Meet the Candidates, call 1-425-436-6200, Access Code 595227.

The Western New York Independent Living Inc. Family of Agencies offer an expanding array of services to aid individuals with disabilities to take control of their own lives.

Press release:

As coronavirus cases rise across the country, "sparking worries the next big wave has begun," school districts throughout Upstate New York face a shortage of pediatric rapid tests needed to safely and efficiently continue in-person teaching throughout the winter, and even leaving some districts unsure how students will even be tested at all.

Today, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer revealed that the feds, specifically the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is sitting on as much as $9 billion dollars needed right now as part of a more coordinated and robust virus testing regime as new standards require any symptomatic student or family member to have a rapid turnaround test within 48 hours or the school must presume a positive result and begin contact tracing.

The senator said Upstate New York alone will need millions of dollars to conduct sufficient rapid testing and tracing programs in schools to keep students and their families safe from the virus.

Schumer demanded HHS release the testing dollars he helped to originally secure in prior COVID relief legislation right now. Schumer also announced his intention to fight for more of those funds as the possibility of a second wave emerges and as a COVID relief deal, long hamstrung by a divided White House and Senate Leader McConnell, is considered. 

“There’s absolutely no question that the health and safety of all students across Upstate New York is paramount, bar none. However, as any Upstate New Yorker can tell you, with allergy season upon us and flu season around the corner, in order to keep our students safe we’re going to need an influx of rapid tests and we’re going to need them quickly,” Senator Schumer said.

“Right now, the feds are sitting on over $9 billion that can and should be long out the door, being used to ramp up testing and tracing for students across the state. Those dollars should be used to get rapid tests to New York students and ensure peace of mind and some semblance of stability to students, families, and teachers who have already endured a tumultuous year.”

Schumer said that thousands of students and people Upstate will need to be tested every day, should a second wave hit hard, and that an effort like that will cost money the federal government is responsible for. Schumer made the case for applying the lessons learned over the past many months — right now — not after it’s too late.

According to the The New York Times, there were 4,675 new cases of COVID-19 in Upstate New York in the last week and the state reported that some regions are seeing up to a 1.5-percent positivity rate.

“This administration must remember sobering lessons and apply them. I first called for a public health emergency declaration on January 26, 2020 but that call was not heeded and inaction cost us precious time, money — and most critically — it cost this country lives.

The federal government cannot and must not repeat COVID mistakes of the past months. Instead, it must use the dollars it has and the premise of robust testing and tracing to tamp down any second wave of this virus and lead us to a true recovery,” Schumer added. 

Schumer has repeatedly expressed his concerns and fought to improve testing and contact tracing throughout the country and New York State. In March, Schumer wrote to the CDC and FDA regarding federal barriers New York was facing in its effort to fully and quickly test people for COVID-19.

The testing capacity was not sufficient to meet New York’s needs and he urged the CDC and FDA to work with New York health officials. Now, as coronavirus cases across the country are rising again, the feds are sitting on money, billions of dollars, that is critical to delivering a coordinated and robust testing regime needed to offset the chances of a strong second wave of the virus. 

According to the Washington Post, for almost a month, new COVID cases have been trending upward and more than 20 states have hit a new high in their seven-day average of case counts, and more than half of those states set records again last week. The rising numbers are especially concerning because they set the stage for an even greater surge this winter.

The newspaper warned that this upward trend comes before the increased mingling of people expected to arrive with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, much of which could be indoors as the weather cools, thereby increasing the chance of transmission.

Press release:

As of 2 p.m.:

• Genesee County received zero new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • Two of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.
  • Fourteen new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
• Orleans County received four new positive cases of COVID-19 for a total of 356 positive cases
  • The new positive cases reside in Albion, Ridgeway, Shelby and Murray.
  • One of the new positive individuals is under mandatory isolation out of state.
  • The individuals are; one is 0-19 yrs. old, one is in their 20s, one is in their 40s, one is in their 60s.
  • None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Three new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Press release:

New Cases – As of 2 p.m. 

• Genesee County received zero new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • Eight of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.
  • Eight new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
  •  
• Orleans County received eight new positive cases of COVID-19.
• The new positive cases reside in Albion, Kent and Murray.
• The individuals are; one in the 0-19 age range, two in their 30s, one in their 40s, three in their 50s and one in their 60s.
• None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.

Thirteen of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.

Ten new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Press release:

New Cases – As of 2 p.m. 

• Genesee County received zero new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • Two of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.
  • Twenty-five new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
  •  
• Orleans County received one new positive case of COVID-19.
• The new positive case resides in Shelby.
• The individual is in in the 0-19 age range. 
• The individual was on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
• Two of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.

New York State’s allocation of 400,000 COVID-19 testing kits provides a much-awaited boost to municipalities, but still doesn’t answer the question of who will be responsible for administering these tests to students and others in need of rapid coronavirus laboratory analysis.

A pair of executive directors of state organizations issued a joint statement to that effect earlier this week, and their thoughts were supported today by Paul Pettit, director of the Genesee & Orleans County Health Departments.

Sarah Ravenhall, executive director of the New York State Association of County Health Officials, and Stephen J. Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties, applauded the distribution of the testing kits, calling it “a welcome step toward the goal of implementing a robust and successful school testing program in counties implementing the state’s Cluster Action Initiative.”

But the availability of these materials isn’t enough, they said, posing the unresolved question: “Who will provide the staff and resources necessary to administer the tests?”

Their statement asserted that many county health departments have numerous school districts in their jurisdictions and not enough licensed and trained staff to handle the workload.

“Test kits are just one part of a much larger array of essential resources that must be deployed to make this work,” they said. “Additionally, we have significant concerns about the capacity of our communities to implement this plan. Local health departments have been working in concert with community-based organizations since the pandemic began, and many of these organizations are at, or even beyond, full capacity.”

Pettit said he agrees with “the essence of the press release … as we are encouraged by the long overdue movement to provide rapid testing in our counties. As we have been sharing since the beginning of COVID in our communities, we have lacked adequate and affordable/free testing for our residents.”

The provision of these machines and kits solves part of the problem, Pettit said, “but leaves many unanswered questions around the capacity and ancillary support to provide them.”

“We again find ourselves with new testing requirements pushed upon us (20 percent of the school population testing if in a 'yellow zone’) without a full understanding of the details of the new requirements and a lack of support and capacity to meet them,” he said. “We have reached out to our community partners and health care providers to discuss the best approach to receiving and implementing a county testing program that will provide the free access points that we’ve been seeking.”

Pettit added that his agency is talking with school officials about coronavirus testing requirements.

“Ultimately, our goal is to have this free rapid testing available from many locations for county residents who need testing for any variety of reasons, including school-based symptom screening, state required testing to visit long-term care facilities, and symptomatic individuals.”

Ravenhall and Acquario are calling upon the state to provide financial support to carry out its directive.

“We cannot rely on local partnerships alone to meet our needs,” they stated. “Any plan to implement robust testing in our schools must include adequate state resources -- and withholding funds from localities will only make this monumental task even more difficult.”

Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that schools in the state’s precautionary “yellow zones” will receive the rapid testing kits, with the 400,000 kits being the first batch.

Starting today, “yellow zone” schools must test a fifth of the student population, staff members and teachers on weekly basis. Schools in “orange” and “red” zones are required to teach students through remote learning only. Currently, none of the schools in Genesee and Orleans counties are in any of the aforementioned zones, Pettit said.

Press release:

New Cases – As of 2 p.m.

• Genesee County received four new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Batavia and Pembroke.
  • The individuals are between the ages of 0-20, 30s, 50s and 60s.
  • None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • We are diligently working on reporting the numbers from the previous days. A complete count will be reflective on the GOW COVID-19 interactive map by tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 16. Thank you for your ongoing patience.
• Orleans County received four new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Albion and Carlton.
  • The individuals are in their 20s, 40s, and 50s.
  • None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • One of the previous positive individuals has recovered and has been released from mandatory isolation
  • Four new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Press release:

New Cases – As of 2 p.m.

• Genesee County Due to ongoing technology/internet issues, we do not have an update for Genesee County.  We expect to report more information on these cases tomorrow. We apologize for the inconvenience.
  • Monday there was one new positive case.
  • Tuesday there were two new positive cases.
  • Wednesday there are two new positive cases.
  • Since Oct. 9, 37 new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
• Orleans County received two new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Albion.
  • The individuals are in their 20s, and 30s.
  • Both of the individuals were not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Fifteen new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

To trick-or-treat or not to trick-or-treat? That seems to be the question on the minds of a lot of families in Batavia as our first pandemic-era Halloween approaches.

Councilman Bob Bialkowski said he's received calls from residents wondering if the city will permit traditional Halloween activities and he said there are even residents concerned that if they don't leave a light on for young ghosts and ghouls their houses might be targeted for vandalism.

Interim City Manager Rachel Tabelski said after reviewing information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), including a chart she said shows Genesee County as one of the few counties in the area the CDC has marked safe for trick-or-treating, she sees no reason right now to cancel Halloween in the city.

She said residents should be informed of the CDC's guidelines, which include:

• Avoid direct contact with trick-or-treaters.
• Give out treats outdoors, if possible.
• Set up a station with individually bagged treats for kids to take.
• Wash hands before handling treats.
• Wear a mask.

Tabelski suggested residents who want to hand out treats, not have trick-or-treaters come to their door but instead meet them one at a time on their sidewalk.

"We are not banning trick-or-treat unless the county or state come down and ask us to ban it," Tabelski said. "We think it's a great idea for parents and residents to be informed to help them feel safe."

She said she didn't anticipate any trouble for residents who choose to turn off their porch light and not participate.

"I think people understand some people may not feel comfortable opening their doors," Tabelski said.

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When the coronavirus pandemic first hit Genesee County, the revenue outlook for the City of Batavia was pretty bleak -- a projected $2.4 million in losses because of an anticipated 30-percent decrease in economic activity.

As it turns out, sales tax revenue in the county is down only 4 percent, Interim City Manager Rachel Tabelski informed the City Council on Tuesday night.

The city also received an 80-percent payment from the state for video lottery terminal (VTL) revenue from Batavia Downs.

Better news but not necessarily good news. There's still a shortage in revenue of $793,000.

"While we still have many freezes and cuts to the departments, we are weathering the storm well of comfort," Tabelski said.

City department managers continue to work to control costs, making cuts in purchasing in vehicles, equipment and supplies, deferring what they can, and some departments are still under a hiring freeze. Those cost-saving measures are projected to save $611,000.

Whether those cuts are for the long term is yet to be seen.

"That's definitely hard to predict," Tabelski said. "We have rising contractual costs of employees coming into next year's budget and we still have New York State's 2 percent property tax cap that we try to look at and maintain, and stay within if we possibly can. The hope is that as we get closer and closer to the next quarter of sales tax collection, we'll have a better revenue picture and we'll be able to tell if we have a better budget outlook to present to Council in January."

Reporting takes time and time is money. We could use more reporters to do more reporting. You can help make that happen. Please become a supporter.

Press release:

Due to the Columbus Day holiday, both the Genesee and Orleans County health departments were closed yesterday. There were no map, website or media updates over the weekend or on Monday. Updates were supposed to resume today, Oct. 13, but technology issues got in the way.

Stay safe, stay distanced and wear your masks to continue to slow the spread. Thank you for your understanding.
 

New Cases – As of 2 p.m. 

• Genesee County -- due to technology/internet issues, we do not have an update for Genesee County. Those numbers will be updated tomorrow. We apologize for the inconvenience.
•  
• Orleans County received 11 new positive case of COVID-19.
• The new positive cases reside in Albion, Shelby, Carlton, Barre, Yates.
• The individuals are in their 0-19 years, 20s, 30s and 50s. 
• Five of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine when they tested positive. Six of the individuals were not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
• Ten new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Due to the Columbus Day holiday, both the Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments will be closed on Monday, Oct. 12.

There will be no map, website or media updates over the weekend or on Monday. Updates will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 13 and will include all accumulated data.

Stay safe, stay distanced and wear your masks to continue to slow the spread. Thank you for your understanding.
 

New Cases – As of 2:00 p.m. 

• Genesee County received one new positive case of COVID-19.
  • The new positive case resides in Elba.
  • The positive individual is in their 20s.
  • The individual was on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Sixteen new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
  • One of the positive individuals is hospitalized.
• Orleans County received one new positive case of COVID-19.
• The new positive case resides in Ridgeway.
• The individual is in their 40s. 
• The individual was not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
• Two new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Press release:

The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a spotlight on the value of more complete medical records in assessing and assisting people who need care to become and remain healthy. Now, 300 regional Community Based Organization (CBOs) sites have connected to Rochester RHIO. 

For the first time, social services and behavioral health organizations have a more complete picture of health records, including recent hospitalizations, laboratory tests and imaging, and medications administered. The same holds true for long-term care facilities, who can contribute details about residents that can speed and improve treatment should they fall ill.

Even select non-HIPAA organizations utilize RHIO DIRECT messaging service, which enables secure point to point electronic communication between caregivers. During no other time in history has a holistic collection of health information been as vital to quality care as it is today.

CBOs work to improve the lives of residents in their geographic location, delivering services that address social determinants of health, including education, transportation, socioeconomic factors, employment status and access to healthy food and activities. With this collaboration, secure data sharing is building a more complete medical record for communities and the 1.5 million residents across the RHIO’s 14-county region. 

“We work to assure that all our population can lead healthy lives,” said Jill Eisenstein, CEO and president of Rochester RHIO. “Community Based Organizations interact with people in their everyday lives, and work to address the economic, educational and social factors that have a direct bearing on their health and well-being.

"By working in coordination with clinical providers, CBOs will be better equipped to provide their services, especially during our current public health emergency.”

CBOs connect to the RHIO Contribute service to achieve bi-directional exchange, meaning they can transmit and receive data that helps caregivers make better decisions and provide better guidance. In turn, other health organizations such as hospitals and specialists who also have permission to access the data can use it to help their assessments and recommendations.

Learn more by contacting Rochester RHIO at 877-865-7446 or info@grrhio.org.

The following community participants are located in Genesee County.

• ARC of Genesee, Orleans (NYSARC)
• Genesee County Office of the Aging
• Genesee County Mental Health
• Genesee County Public Health
• Mental Health Association of Genesee and Orleans Counties
• Lake Plains Community Care Network (Batavia)
• Le Roy Volunteer Ambulance Service
• UMMC Healthy Living Programs (Batavia)
• Western NY Independent Living (Batavia)

The full participant map is available here.

Press release:

• Genesee County received eight new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Alabama, Batavia, Elba and Stafford.
  • Two of the positive individuals are between the ages of 0-20, one individual is in their 40s, two individuals are in their 50s, one individual is in their 60s, and two individuals are in their 80s.
  • Three individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Twenty-one new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.
  • One of the positive individuals is hospitalized.
  • One of the individuals is a resident at the New York State Veterans Home.
• Orleans County received two new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Albion and Yates.
  • One of the individuals is in their 20s and one individual is in their 30s.
  • The individuals were not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Seven new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

In this interview, Paul Pettit, director of Health for Genesee and Orleans counties, talks about: the recent uptick in cases; the level of community spread; how things are going with the schools; the arrival of flu season; the ongoing difficulty in getting adequate testing locally; and what the future holds.

Regarding the outbreak in Elba, Pettit said:

"What we can see is there is some connection, obviously, on the social side. I do want to say we haven't seen any school spread among these different students in Elba. They're more connected on the community side. There are some different things that we're identifying as some commonality and connections with some of these cases, some of them involved in social gathering, some birthday parties, different types of events that may have lent itself, again, maybe closer contact, prolonged contact that would have potentially led to some of these transmissions."

On guidelines and restrictions:

"We're continuing to advocate daily, locally, here, especially in the rural areas, for the testing capacity or some additional relief on some of these guidelines, some of the closures and capacity issues. We do believe that there should be a little more flexibility in some of these areas, especially with low infection rates overall. So we are advocating. We are working with all of our elected officials, to push back at some of these things."

After talking about eased guidelines for doctors in clearing students to return to school, Petit brought up ongoing issues with testing:

"Ultimately, that leads us into another area which continues to be a challenge for us -- access to testing. This has not improved for us here in Genesee County or pretty much any rural county in the state. We've been beating the drums significantly since the peak in March when we started to see our first cases. Unfortunately, we still are very, very limited with our access to testing. It actually became more restrictive about a month and a half ago when our health care facilities, most of the primary care docs, started doing testing of symptomatic folks only.

"The requirements for screens for going back to college or for people to want to go visit their loved ones in the nursing home now have to have a negative test within seven days. None of our local facilities were offering those types of tests if folks weren't symptomatic. And if they were able to get them, they were getting charged a pretty significant amount. That is not appropriate. It's something that we have, I myself personally advocated for almost every day, really, for our elected officials from local all the way up to our state elected officials to continue to push the governor's office for increased free testing for our residents. I mean, it's essential the way the governor has set up these guidelines with testing requirements and the need to have negative tests for various reasons. It's not rational in that we should be able to meet these guidelines without having the testing. ...

"We have to have the ability to meet the intent of the guidelines. So we're not in violation and we're not putting pressures and challenges on our residents that they have to make choices. Do I get tested to visit a loved one or do I potentially have money to go get groceries this week? ...  

"(We) need to get rapid testing. We need it now and we are working on it. We're working at Oak Orchard, both in Orleans, Genesee County. They do have some of these testing machines and we're just waiting on the test kits antigen to be able to use them. We're also working on getting some rapid testing machines from the state that we could deploy and potentially use more broadly for some of these testing needs. But that's really key. We need to get access to this rapid testing so that we can get folks to where they need to go."

Press release:

New Cases – As of 2 p.m.

• Genesee County received two new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Elba.
  • The positive individuals are between the ages of 0-20.
  • The individuals were not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • One of the previous positive individuals has recovered and has been released from isolation.
  • One of the positive individuals is hospitalized.
• Orleans County received three new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Albion, Gaines and Ridgeway.
  • Two of the individuals are in their 50s and one individual is in their 60s.
  • The individuals were not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Seven new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

New Cases – As of 2 p.m. 

• Genesee County received one new positive case of COVID-19.
  • The new positive case resides in Elba.
  • The positive individual is in their 50s.
  • The individual was not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • One of the previous positive individuals has recovered and has been released from isolation. 
  • One of the positive individuals is hospitalized.
  • Currently, there are two active positive students at the Elba Central School District.
• Orleans County received two new positive cases of COVID-19.
  • The new positive cases reside in Murray.
  • One of the individuals is in their 20s and one individual is in their 30s. 
  • One individual was not on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.
  • Two of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been released from isolation.
  • Seventeen new individuals are on precautionary quarantine due to travel from restricted states.

Press release:

Congressman Chris Jacobs (NY-27) has cosponsored four pieces of legislation to help drive economic recovery – the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act, a bill extending coronavirus aid for airlines, the Small Business Expense Protection Act of 2020, and the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services (CERTS) Act.

“As we work through the unprecedented challenges facing our nation, my focus is ensuring we have a strong and robust economic recovery," Jacobs said. "We must get Americans back to work safely, support our major industries, and provide vital resources to small businesses so we can protect American jobs and give companies the ability to create new ones.” 

The four pieces of legislation Jacobs cosponsored are:

• H.R. 7777 – Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act would forgive any Paycheck Protection Program loan under $150,000. 
• H.R. 8345 – to provide support for air carrier workers, would extend the Payroll Support Program (PSP) for airlines for an additional six months through March 2021.
• H.R. 6821 – Small Business Expense Protection Act of 2020 would allow businesses to deduct expenses covered with forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans from their federal taxes.
• H.R. 7642 – Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services (CERTS) Act would provide assistance to bus and motor coach operators that have been significantly impacted by COVID-19. In addition to supporting employees, these funds could be used to support operation and maintenance of existing equipment. 

“Supporting the American workforce and reducing the burdens placed on our small businesses are critical to bolstering our nation’s economic recovery," Jacobs said. "As I continue fighting for policies that put American workers and small businesses first, I am also strongly urging the Speaker, the Senate, and the White House to reach a bipartisan deal to provide comprehensive COVID-19 relief for our families, small businesses, and farmers.”

Press release:

As of late last week, New York is thrilled to launch COVID Alert NY – the official Exposure Notification App created by the New York State Department of Health in partnership with Google and Apple. Now you can use your phone in the fight against COVID-19 and get exposure alerts, without compromising your privacy or personal information.

WHAT IS COVID ALERT NY?

COVID Alert NY is New York State's official Exposure Notification App. This is a free smartphone app for anyone 18+ that lives and/or works in New York available for download in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The COVID Alert NY app notifies users if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Upon receiving an exposure notification, the app will encourage users to contact their physician or the State Health Department hotline (1-833-227-5045) to get more information about quarantining and testing.

Anyone who downloads the app does not have to worry about being tracked, identified or having their personal information shared. The app is completely anonymous and does not track your location or movement. No personal data is collected. COVID Alert NY uses Bluetooth proximity-enabled exposure notification technology provided by Apple and Google, which is safe and secure.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The more New Yorkers using the COVID Alert NY app, the more effective it will be as a tool to fight against COVID-19. We need your help to rally your community to download and use the app.

The COVID Alert NY app puts the power in the hands of New Yorkers to protect their neighbors, friends, family and community at large. Together, we can slow the spread of COVID-19.

WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE?

The New York State webpage on COVID Alert NY is found at: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-alert-ny

You can find a Frequently Asked Questions page here.

And in Spanish here.

To learn more about COVID Alert NY, visit:   ny.gov/covidalerts