On March 8, Gary Greenberg called for a change in petitioning after a Guilderland woman, an American citizen of Chinese descent who was circulating his nominating periton, was verbally assaulted.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy made a call for volunteers to staff phone lines to keep the county’s health department from being “bogged down” as it maps and tracks the people that those with confirmed cases have come into contact with. “We can use volunteers to answer phones,” McCoy said. “We can train you in ten, fifteen minutes.”

“This is unprecedented to have long-term school closures during the school year. It’s uncharted territory for the whole community,” said Marie Wiles, superintendent of the Guilderland schools. “We need to be patient and work together, to put the health and safety of students ahead of everything else.

Two more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Albany County, connected to a woman in Guilderland, County Executive Daniel McCoy announced on Twitter Friday.

One is a student at Farnsworth Middle School, according to a statement by the district Friday, prompting a required closure of the district. 

Either a student or staff member with a confirmed case of COVID-19 would trigger a school closing.

Describing the mood at school today, Superintendent Marie Wiles said, “People are worried and you can feel the anxiety build as this moves closer and closer to our community.”

Wiles said it was “horrible” to have to tell the students who had rehearsed for the "Chicago" musical for months that, on what was scheduled to be opening night, the show would not go on.

“They were heartbroken and upset,” she said, “which is understandable.”

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Releasing key information coupled with an assertive response is the best way to keep the public calm in the midst of the spreading coronavirus.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy announced on Friday afternoon that there have been no positive test results in the county for COVID-19. Two tests were pending and 14 households were under quarantine, the executive’s office reported on Friday evening.

While the risk of being infected with the novel coronavirus remains very low for Albany County residents, Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said, “We are not too early to start planning … to be prepared if we need to be prepared.”