Randy Gorbman

Keuka College has become one of the latest colleges to transition to all-remote learning for a while because of a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The college notes that the Yates County Department of Public Health confirmed on Friday that 12 Keuka students tested positive for the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. That brought the number of active cases at the college to 18, with one case resolved.

New York state will be getting more aggressive about businesses violating COVID-19 guidelines in the hot spots where the virus has flared up recently. That's what Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters during a briefing on Sunday.

He said that if businesses are not following the rules in those areas, which are mostly in the New York City area and suburbs, then the state will step in.

The unemployment rate in most of the state’s metro areas in New York dipped below 10% in August for the first time since March, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the state Department of Labor.

New York City still topped the list among the state’s metro areas, with an unemployment rate of 16.3% last month, but that’s a drop of nearly four points compared to the city’s numbers in July.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that five states—Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Wyoming—have been added to New York State's COVID-19 travel advisory. No areas have been removed.

The advisory requires individuals who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

Free The People Roc, one of the main organizers behind recent protests calling for justice in the wake of the death of Daniel Prude, says it is ending the daily protest near City Hall. A couple of dozen protesters were reportedly still near the building on Church Street Monday night, but the activist organization issued this statement in its Facebook page:

There has been more than a week of protests and rallies in Rochester since the public learned of the March death of Daniel Prude.

Prude is the 41-year-old Chicago man who was visiting his brother in Rochester. His brother, Joe Prude, called police because Daniel was having a mental health crisis, and they eventually found him running naked on Jefferson Avenue. Officers pinned him to the pavement, he lost consciousness and died a week later. The death was ruled a homicide.

For the second time this week, naked, or near-naked protesters have gathered in a public space in Rochester to show support for issues raised by Free The People Roc and other social justice groups in recent days.

The protests began last week when video surfaced of the way Daniel Prude was treated. Police were called to look for him last March by his brother, when Daniel was having a mental health crisis.

New York state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have dropped to 410, a new low. That’s according to numbers released by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday, which show the number of hospitalizations at the lowest level since March 16.

He also said the state’s COVID-19 infection rate has been less than 1% for 30 straight days.  The infection rate for the Finger Lakes Region, which includes Rochester, was .7% on Saturday.

Monroe County on Sunday reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths.

In the latest WXXI Business Report, the local unemployment rate remains in the double digits but there has been some slight improvement. 

Workers at del Lago and other casinos are pushing the governor to allow them to reopen, and they may get the green light soon. Plus, the push to create a Downtown Innovation Zone in Rochester takes another step forward.

The New York State Thruway’s move to all cashless tolls has taken another step forward.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that the final of 70 steel gantries being built as part of this system has been installed. It’s located on the Thruway at Exit 42 in Geneva.

There’s a total of 21 gantries along the main part of the thruway and another 34 at entrance and exit ramps.

The crews are now installing sensors and cameras at those overhead gantries that read EZ-Pass tags and take license plate images; the system is expected to be operational by the end of this year.