Weekend News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on February 20, 2021
Starting Monday the 22nd nursing homes can begin allowing visitors once again, according to governor Cuomo’s announcement on Friday. The governor said all nursing home staff and residents have been offered the COVID-19 vaccine and 73% of nursing home residents are now vaccinated. The governor’s office will send out guidelines to nursing homes and long term care facilities soon that will include rapid testing and screening provided by the department of health.
In a response to the nursing home protests and ongoing issues with nursing homes Governor Cuomo announced reform legislation to target transparency, care and profiteering at long term care facilities. Some of the reforms include: requiring nursing homes to disclose all rates on an annually updated website, a cap on salaries for managers and executives, requiring that nursing homes spend 70 percent or more of revenues on direct patient care, and increasing the penalties for violations of public health law.
COVID vaccine shipments have been delayed by the winter weather across the country. Governor Cuomo’s office released a statement saying that Pfizer shipments scheduled for Friday have been delayed till Monday. Moderna shipments should arrive by the middle of the week. No appointments at state run sites have had to be rescheduled.
Covid update from Friday evening: Genesee county has 18 new cases and 11 people have recovered. Orleans county has 7 new cases and 4 people have recovered. There are 71 active cases in Genesee county and 47 in Orleans.
There is a report of a train on snowmobile collision in Darien late Friday night. The train operator believes that the snowmobile was unoccupied and left on the tracks. The snowmobile was not registered but it’s last registration was in Rochester. A CSX employee witnessed a person leaving the scene and fresh footprints were found leading away from the snowmobile.
The Firing Pin in Bergen is partnering with the American Warrior Festival which is having it’s events virtually this year. Their events are going on right now and end March 25th. There is a virtual marksmanship competition where you can record yourself doing a ten shot firing drill and submit it and a 5 or 10k with a fun run or walk for sponsorships. All money raised through registrations, sponsors, merchandise and concessions goes to help veterans. The American Warriors Festival strives to provide entertainment, encouragement and resources to veterans and work toward veteran suicide prevention.
