Bethany Bump is reporting for the Times Union Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson was one of four Capital Region hospitals this week to get the green-light to resume elective outpatient surgeries and procedures. CMH, Albany Medical Center, Glens Falls Hospital, and St. Mary's Healthcare in Amsterdam confirmed May 7, the state Department of Health has approved their requests for a waiver from a recent set of state guidelines that left them ineligible to resume those procedures. “This is great news for the community as well as the hospital,” Glens Falls Hospital CEO Dianne Shugrue said in response to the waiver approval. Hospital officials have expressed concern that people are not getting the care they need, due to the ban on elective procedures and to a fear among the general population that entering hospital right now puts them at risk for infection. To qualify for the waiver, the hospitals had to show the Department of Health there was a detailed plan in place to resume procedures and that explicit measures would be taken to ensure any potential surge of COVID-19 patients going forward can be handled. Columbia Memorial furloughed 125 workers roughly three weeks ago, and officials said Thursday they are evaluating those furloughs "on a regular basis." Read the full story in the Times Union.