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The Spring Valley Police Department says it appears a “swatting incident” caused the shutdown of Target Store at the Spring Valley Marketplace earlier Thursday evening. At around 5:30 the police got a call from a man claiming to be inside the store who said he was armed, had multiple hostages, and placed explosives throughout the store. The store was evacuated and cleared by agencies and canine units on-scene. Once the store was deemed safe of any immediate threat, the store was re-opened, as was the Spring Valley Marketplace, which had been closed to car and pedestrian traffic. Multiple departments assisted in the case. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

A bi-partisan group of 12 County Executives from New York is urging Congress to pass emergency stimulus legislation that would help them fight the pandemic. Rockland County Executive Ed Day says it’s a non-partisan, human issue…

New York’s governor, meanwhile, is warning hospital and nursing home officials to be prepared for a potential surge in patients as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. In a press briefing yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said what was learned earlier this year when COVID first struck will be helpful this time around…

Cuomo also detailed New York’s vaccination program, which prioritizes high-risk healthcare workers, nursing home residents and staff to get the vaccine first. Other long-term care staff and residents, EMS and other health care workers come next, followed by essential workers and the general population, starting with those who are at highest risk.

COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we’ve got one in the hospital being examined, another 81 there have been confirmed with coronavirus, and a total of 2,225 active cases. The state says since the crisis began, we’ve had a total of 23,308 reported cases, 236 more than Wednesday, and the number of deaths in the county since the pandemic began remains where it was yesterday at 714.