From the City:
- ATTEND FROM HOME: Tuesday’s City Council meeting will be held virtually on Zoom and streamed on the City’s website for live-viewing.
- Members of the public can also participate in the Public Hearings via Zoom, and submit public comments to the Council at public.comment@saratoga-springs.org.
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From Governor Cuomo / New York State:
1. New York will stay on PAUSE for an additional two weeks through April 29th. I am directing schools and nonessential businesses to stay closed through April 29th. We will re-evaluate after this additional period.
2. The State is partnering with the company Headspace to provide New Yorkers with free meditation and mindfulness resources. We can’t underestimate the impact this public health crisis has on mental health. New Yorkers can access a collection of free guided meditations, along with at-home mindfulness exercises and additional resources to help address rising stress and anxiety. Visitwww.headspace.com/ny.
3. I’m increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state’s social distancing protocol from $500 to $1,000. This increase is targeted at any lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. Now is not the time to be lax about distance. Localities have the authority to enforce the protocols and they need to do so.
4. To help support our First Responders, New York created the First Responders Fund. The fund will assist COVID-19 health care workers and first responders with expenses and costs, including child care. The State Department of Health is accepting donations for the fund, and received an anchor $10 million contribution from Blackstone. Donations can be made electronically atwww.healthresearch.org/donation-form or by check mailed to "Health Research, Inc., 150 Broadway, Suite 560, Menands, NY 12204." Donors should specify the donation is for "COVID-19 NYS Emergency Response."
5. We are continuously working to expand our hospital capacity. The South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island and the Brooklyn Center Temporary Hospital at 170 Buffalo Avenue will open this week and will be used specifically for COVID-19 patients.
6. Our "surge and flex" hospital system is being put to work. We have distributed 802 ventilators downstate, where all hospital systems are working together as one and sharing supplies, equipment and staff. Of the 802 ventilators, 38 were deployed to Rockland County, 36 were deployed to Westchester County, 505 were deployed to New York City and 223 were deployed to Long Island.
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From the County:
Our updated positive COVID-19 case count is now up to 163 as of this morning. We currently have 15 hospitalizations. We were also notified yesterday of a 2nddeath in the County related to COVID-19.
There seem to be a growing number of online tracker sources that are popping up to provide positive cases, number of tests, number of deaths, etc. by County. I wanted to caution you about the accuracy of these trackers. The data that I provide to you daily on the number of positive cases is obtained directly from Public Health and accurately reflects the cases they are managing. In terms of the number of deaths, the numbers that are reported through online trackers may include residents that were being treated outside of our County which are not part of the cases that we are managing locally. As a result, we are not necessarily notified directly when deaths have occurred. In the case of our second death of a County resident, Public Health was only notified yesterday afternoon and it appears that this individual passed away on April 3rd. The reality is that with the flurry of activity that is taking place at every level of response, the data isn’t always released to the County in a timely fashion.
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