While most of the COVID-19 news locally has been getting better recently, Lauren Stanforth reports in the Times Union that things are taking a turn for the worse in Albany County. “Today marks the fourth day in a row that I have reported a higher number of new positive cases,” Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said in a statement March 21. “We had 90 on Thursday, 65 on Friday, 64 yesterday and 71 today. We need to stay vigilant." And on March 20, New York reported its first case of a Brazilian variant found in a 90-year-old Brooklyn resident who had not traveled. There have also been 138 reports of the U.K. variant in the state, and one case of the South African variant. "This is a race between the vaccine and the variants, and we continue to make tremendous progress of getting shots in the arms of eligible New Yorkers," state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said in a statement March 20. "In the meantime we remind New Yorkers to do everything they can to protect themselves and their neighbors as we continue to manage this pandemic." The good news: a quarter of New York residents have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 13 percent have completed either a two-dose regimen or received the Johnson & Johnson one-dose inoculation. Locally Albany County reports 32.5 percent of adults have at least one vaccine, 29.6 percent of Columbia County residents, 28.7 percent of Ulster County residents, 28.5 of Rensselaer County residents, 25.9 percent of Dutchess County residents, and 25.7 percent of Greene County residents. Schoharie County and Delaware County trail behind the state average at 23 percent and 21.5 percent.