Governor Kathy Hochul pictured during her first address as governor last Tuesday. (Source: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)
In her first COVID-19 briefing, Governor Kathy Hochul reiterated her stance that teachers and all staff in schools should be vaccinated or compulsory tests for the virus and said the policy will become a reality “very soon”.
“We are in the process of obtaining legal approval for this,” said the governor during the briefing at the University of Buffalo.
She said she is currently not empowered to implement the mandates as the state of emergency that existed last year has now been lifted.
She said that while many teachers and administrators have already been vaccinated, it is the “outliers that could prevent us all from being able to safely open schools”.
The state’s Department of Health officially issued guidelines to school districts on Friday that masks are required indoors. This came after the governor’s announcement last Tuesday on her first day in office, after replacing Andrew Cuomo, who had left mask mandates to individual districts.
Ms. Hochul defended the mask decision on Tuesday, saying she was aware of how controversial it became.
“I am ready to make tough decisions every day and everywhere if I think they are protecting the people of this state,” she said. “We are going to take bold, dramatic steps to protect individuals in this state, especially children.”
She said the masking mandates are not perpetual and could be lifted in certain regions of the state if the COVID situation improves.
“It doesn’t have to be universal lifting at the same time,” she said.
Ms. Hochul planned to take a different approach to dealing with the pandemic by giving more discretion to local health departments and health care workers. She said she would not “micromanage” but the state would be “the ally” and provide help where it was needed.
She announced that she would make $ 65 million available to local health officials to help plan and promote the booster dose. COVID-19 booster vaccinations will be offered starting in late September for those eight months away from their second dose.
Suffolk County’s executive Steve Bellone on Monday announced the county’s latest milestone of achieving 80% vaccination with at least one dose for residents 18 and over. About 60.1% of the county is now fully vaccinated.
According to the county’s health department, 231 people are currently hospitalized in Suffolk with COVID-19. In the past seven days, an average of 500 new cases per day were registered in the district.
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