575 Complaints About People Not Wearing Masks In Albany

Albany County is seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases. That’s probably because we are seeing a huge rise in mask and social distancing infractions. Albany County currently has 87 active COVID-19 cases and local officials are pushing to reduce the numbers.

Albany County has seven new COVID-19 cases, and we have more than 900 people in mandatory quarantine. As you well know, New York has banned travel to and from more than half of the states in the country. If you’ve traveled to one of those states on the list, you should know you’re required to do a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Remember at the beginning of the pandemic I asked if you would tell on someone for not wearing a mask? Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says that his office received 575 complaints about the businesses that are not complying with COVID-19 rules. Big stores, little stores, bars, and restaurants are all responsible for being compliant. Sheriff Apple says that 150 complaints are from Albany and 200 calls are from Colonie. He says that they are averaging 10 to 15 complaints per day and his office has issued six cease and desist orders.

Sheriff Apple is asking that we all do our part to fight COVID-19. He said, “If everyone would just wear the damn mask for two weeks and not go into states that are quarantined, or if you come back and do the actual quarantine, we can get through this thing. But people are continually traveling into states that are on the list not to travel to. If they do, they come back; they just go back to work.“

It seems that local officials are doing all that they can to reduce the destruction of COVID-19 in our communities. Now it's up to us to do our part, we must wear our masks, wash your hands, and social distance from others. We’ve all seen that these things work, so let’s make it happen. Do your part!