Bethany Bump reports in the Times Union that the coronavirus pandemic is now officially worse in the Capital Region than in the spring. The eight counties in the region reported 182 new infections Nov. 9, 35 more than the spring peak. There were 147 cases reported May 1, the previous high total. The five-day rolling average of new daily infections is now 122, above the region’s previous record of 117 set May 2. Many of the cases are in four locations: the University at Albany, Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, the Rensselaer County-run nursing home in North Greenbush, and an assisted living facility in Ghent. But many others come from random homes, election poll locations, schools, and businesses. Columbia County announced 10 more new COVID-19 cases on Nov. 10, and Greene County reported three more new cases. On Nov. 9 Columbia County activated its Emergency Operations Center in response to climbing case counts. Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said there were another 68 cases of the disease there, for 4,016 to date. And over 10 percent of Albany County's cumulative total have been diagnosed in the past week alone. “Our numbers are going in the wrong direction and I’m very concerned,” Whalen said Nov. 10. “Now we have kids back in school.... We have people back in their places of work. So what am I concerned about? This number’s gonna go up unless people change their behavior. Unless people are very vigilant with what they do, we are going to see these numbers go up. And what happens when those numbers start to go up? Our hospitals start to fill up and we start to hit surge capacity.” Rensselaer County, with 22 cases announced Nov. 10, fell two shy of its record-high one-day total of 24 new confirmed infections (set May 9 and July 30). The Albany Med hospital begins restricting visitation starting Nov. 11, while Columbia Memorial hospital in Hudson did the same on Oct. 30. And these record case totals are not just a local phenomenon, but are happening everywhere across the United States. Read more about this story in the Times Union.