Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that five Greene County residents died last week from COVID-19. Greene County officials did not release the ages, known comorbidities, and vaccination status of the dead. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still lists Greene County as low risk for coronavirus. Locally, the CDC lists Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties as high risk, and Columbia, Delaware, Schoharie, and Ulster counties at medium risk. New Omicron variants are largely to blame for the latest outbreak. “Epidemiologically, it doesn’t appear as if we’re seeing more severe disease in places that are having more cases. So, we are not anticipating more severe disease from some of these sub variants, but we are actively studying it," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.