Breaking News

A federal program to vaccinate nursing home residents and staff began yesterday in New York. The program will continue for the next two weeks. President-elect Joe Biden got his Pearl River-based Pfizer vaccine yesterday afternoon.

Three major airlines will be testing travelers for COVID coming to New York from the UK, where a new, highly contagious strain of the virus was discovered. British Airways, Delta Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are administering the tests. In his press conference yesterday, governor Andrew Cuomo said he didn’t want to see a repeat of what happened here in the spring…

The governor continues to ask the federal government to impose similar travel restrictions, which at the moment has not yet been done. Despite the COVID, Cuomo says Santa will be coming to town…

Unfortunately, due to the anticipated large crowds it would have drawn, Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann says they decided to cancel their popular annual Winter Wonderland this season…

COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we lost six more to COVID, the total count is at 745. We’ve got four hospitalized being examined, another 81 there are confirmed cases, and a total of 2,056 active cases. Overall, we’ve had 25,413 reported cases, 430 more than Monday.

Congress late Sunday passed a one-day funding bill to keep the government afloat, and a vote on the $900 million COVID relief package agreed-to late Sunday is expected to come today. The agreement reportedly includes direct payments of $600 for qualifying Americans, a federal unemployment insurance bonus of $300 a week, more money for businesses who need to pay rent and their employees, and vaccine distribution funds. On Friday before the deal was made in Washington, Rockland Business Association CEO Al Samuels said the bill’s exclusion of funding for the states would be especially harmful to New York, which needs to start working on the next fiscal year’s budget…

The agreement also includes $4 billion in funding for the beleaguered MTA, which had threatened massive cuts and the elimination of service west of the Hudson without significant help. Hopefully the money comes on time for area small businesses. Stony Point supervisor Jim Monaghan says it’s getting tough in his town…

COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we lost four more to COVID, the total count stands at 739. We’ve got three hospitalized being tested, another 86 there are confirmed cases, and a total of 2,130 active cases. Overall, we have a total of 24,983 reported cases, 196 more than Friday.

After 142 years, the village of South Nyack is coming to an end. Mayor Bonnie Christian says residents there have decided in a referendum yesterday it’s time to let go…

Taxes and zoning issues resulted in a petition drive to dissolve the village this past summer.

The snow started around 4:45 or so yesterday afternoon here in the county but it seems like we escaped disaster. Overall here at WRCR Headquarters in Garnerville, it appears we got about eight inches of snow on the ground, maybe a foot in other areas of the county, a good amount but not the foot and a half some predicted we’d get. It was enough to shut down all Rockland school districts and BOCES, they’re taking the day off entirely. RCC’s campuses are closed, but students should check with their instructors to see if classes will be offered remotely. Dominican College is closed, but the Computer Lab in Rosary Hall will be open starting at 8am for resident students who need the lab to take an online final exam. And Saint Thomas Aquinas college is closed, but remote learning is on as scheduled. Rockland County Executive Ed Day says the highway crews got a jump start on this storm, and they were clearing the roads every time another two inches would hit the ground…

The main roads appear to be moving slowly, but moving nevertheless. Best bet is to stay home if you really don’t have to go anywhere. Public transportation here in Rockland, the TOR Loops 1, 2 & 3 are CLOSED. On the rest you can expect delays due to the adverse road conditions. Go to http://rocklandbus.com for updated information. As of this morning Orange and Rockland Utilities had a few scattered outages to report.

It’s not a number we’re used to, but the death count in Rockland has climbed 11 since the last report yesterday for a total of 727 since the pandemic began, that’s 28 this month alone. This as the COVID vaccine from Pearl River-based Pfizer and BioNTech was first administered in New York Monday morning at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. At his daily press briefing yesterday, governor Andrew Cuomo said 75 to 85 percent of the population needs to get vaccinated for it to be effective…

Phase one of the vaccine distribution is going to high-risk hospital workers, nursing home residents and staff. Those will be followed by long-term and congregate care residents and staff, EMS and other health care workers. Phase two is other essential workers and members of the general population who are at the highest risk. Moderna’s vaccine is expected to be approved later this week.

COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we’ve got 84 in the hospital confirmed with coronavirus, and a total of 2,193 active cases. The state says since the crisis began, we’ve had a total of 24,183 reported cases, 503 more than Monday.