Morning News Briefing
Written by Michael Baldwin on February 17, 2021
The Genesee County & City of Batavia Youth Boards are looking for nominations for their annual Youth Recognition Celebration. The awards include the Youth Recognition Award, the Adult Volunteer and Adult Youth Worker. Nominations are due by Friday, March 5. For more information or to receive nomination forms, please call the Genesee County Youth Bureau. The forms are also on the Youth Bureau page of the Genesee County website.
The offices of the Batavia Department of Public Works Administration and the Bureau of Inspection will be closed on Monday, Feb. 22, for mandatory training. The offices will reopen on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Anyone needing to do business with either office please plan accordingly.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that New York State’s 7-day average COVID-19 positivity rate dropped to 3.71 percent, the lowest since November 28. Those hospitalized in the Finger Lakes Region has dropped to 301, with 397 in an ICU.
Genesee County received 39 new positive cases of COVID-19 since Friday afternoon through the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. Forty-seven of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been removed from the isolation list. Fourteen of the current positive individuals are hospitalized. Orleans County received 15 new positive cases of COVID-19 since Friday afternoon through the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. Meanwhile, Wyoming County saw an increase of 34 cases since Friday.
As cases of COVID-19 are trending downward, Rochester Regional Health is welcoming visitors back to its hospitals seven days a week. Please continue to wear your mask, practice hand hygiene and stay socially distanced wherever possible. It’s also important to get vaccinated when a vaccine is available to you, although current supplies are limited.
The first steps are underway to take away Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s emergency executive powers. Two downstate Democrats are soliciting support of a bill to repeal the emergency legislative abilities granted to Cuomo last spring in an effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed legislation follows growing controversy over his administration’s reporting of nursing home deaths. More than 15,000 nursing home residents have died from COVID in New York.
