SUNY, CUNY Students Need Booster To Return To Classes: Hochul

LONG ISLAND, NY — With the number of COVID-19 cases continuing to spike in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul rolled out her "winter surge 2.0" plan Friday — including announcements that all SUNY and CUNY students must be boosted before returning to classes, and that a mask-or-vaccination mandate for businesses will be extended through February.

Hochul said there were five key points to the plan: Keeping kids in school, continuing to wear masks and test, preventing severe illness and death, increasing vaccines and boosters, and working in collaboration with local leaders.

"We are working around the clock to fight this surge. And as we've been saying for a long time, we were going to experience a very serious winter surge," Hochul said.

Statewide, as of Friday, there are 271 cases per 100,000 — and 321 per 100,000 on Long Island. On Friday, there were 76,555 new positive cases reported as the omicron variant adds to the uptick, Hochul said.

"It's almost not worth it to say we're breaking records. We're breaking records every day and we'll probably continue to do so until we hit that downward trend," Hochul said.

The trends have been witnessed nationwide and globally, Hochul reminded. New York stands at number three in the nation for per capita testing and number one, in the large states, she said.

Hospitalizations continue to rise, "closing in on 8,000 — which is not a milestone we've hoped to hit, but it's also very concerning," Hochul said. Health care workers are exhausted and frustrated, she said, "because they know it did not have to be this way. If we had more people vaccinated, fully vaccinated, to deal with this highly transmittable variant known as omicron."

On Long Island, 1,374 are hospitalized, the data indicates. And a total of 80 New Yorkers died in the 24 hours leading up to Friday's news briefing, Hochul said.

"We're not out of this," Hochul said. "We're still addressing a very serious situation."

In New York, 95 percent of adults over 18 have received their first dose, but there is a need for people to go receive their second doses, Hochul said — adding that boosters, too, are critical. A person who is boosted can be protected within two to three days of receiving that shot, she said.

The challenge also remains children in the 5 to 11 age group, Hochul said — only 28 percent have received their first dose. Children in that age group who remain unvaccinated might be transmitting the virus to their younger siblings, she said.

Discussing why she was releasing a 2.0 plan, Hochul said it's because the virus has changed so dramatically and quickly since November.

"We have to adapt. We have to be very smart. We've been doing the right things, but 2.0 is simply improvements upon what we've been doing. And again, to sound the alarm, that the numbers are continuing to increase — they don't have to, we can control this," she said.

Hochul discussed the five key points of her 2.0 plan:

Keeping kids in school

The governor said planes are bringing testing kits to New York, so that the "Test to Stay" program can be rolled out. The tenet of that plan is that if a student's classmate tests positive, kids can take home test kits in their backpacks, and then come back the next day if they test negative, and get tested again in a few days.

New York State Operations Director Kathryn Garcia said more than 37 million tests have been ordered; 5.28 million arrived this week, and another 6 million are arriving through Monday. The state will also supply tests to counties.

Discussing college students, Hochul said students congregate and live on campus, so the experience is different. On Friday, the state issued new guidance for SUNY and CUNY schools for the spring semester.

"We are asking all schools to ensure that students before they return are boosted," Hochul said. "They're required to be vaccinated. Now we're putting on an additional requirement: in order to return to your college campus you have to be boosted."

College students are also required to wear masks in public spaces indoors and will have to quarantine and follow New York State and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines if anyone does test positive. Those students will also have to show a negative test when they return to campus, Hochul said.

Random sampling will continue throughout the year, Hochul added.

The requirement takes effect on January 15.

The goal is not to just think of the health of students and staff, but also the local businesses that will suffer if college campuses are forced to shutter, Hochul said.

Mask/vaccination requirement for businesses extended

Testing and masks are an important line of defense, Hochul said.

Although the mandate for businesses to either require masks or proof of vaccination was initially going to be re-evaluated on January 15, that has been extended for two weeks, due to the rapidly changing landscape, Hochul said.

The plan has been geared all along to keeping the economy open, she said. "The other alternative is to say, shut it all down. The reason we don't have to do this is because we now have the defenses in place, the testing, the vaccines, the booster shots, the masks. So we're in a different dynamic now — but I'm very conscious while this continues to spread that we can take steps to make sure that they are protected," Hochul said.

To that end, Hochul urged the use of KN95 masks, which offer more protection; she said New Yorkers can use their favorite cloth masks over the KN95 masks to offer double protection. A total of 5 million KN95 masks have been sent out to counties statewide, she said.

With 13 new testing sites launched recently, including two on Long Island, six others will be added next week, although none of those six are on Long Island. New MTA sites have also been added in New York City in the Bronx, she said.

Preventing severe illness and death

Hochul said supporting hospitals is a key factor in preventing severe illness and death. The federal government plays an important role, Hochul said. She is working with federal partners and advocating for the right to be able to protect nursing home occupants by requiring visitors to be vaccinated.

"We've asked the federal government to revise their regulations that don't allow us to have any restrictions on visitors," Hochul said. "I understand that this was a reaction to the painful experience that so many families had to experience when they couldn't visit a loved one. Visit your loved one, but also don't be the reason that loved one does not survive."

Hochul said she has also asked the federal government to make the antiviral treatment more widely available.

Dr. Mary Bassett, New York's department of health commissioner, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week gave emergency approval to oral antiviral drugs. Before that, monoclonal antibodies were drugs that had to be administered in hospitals; the Pfizer drug is called Paxlovid, the Merck drug is Molnupiravir — both are taken orally twice a day for five days.

While New York received 3,180 doses of Paxlovid, far greater amounts are needed, Bassett said. The challenge is in production, she said.

There has also been a focus on monoclonal antibodies, Bassett said, including one that's been the most protective for people who have omicron infection, called Sotrovimab. New York received 4,242 doses and then received an additional 5,580. "The federal government is now acknowledging that New York State has to receive not just proportional to our population but proportional to our disease burden," Bassett said.

Jackie Bray, division of Homeland Security emergency services commissioner, said federal assistance has come in the form of new deployments statewide. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending a 35-member disaster medical assistance team to SUNY upstate in Syracuse, as well as a medical response team to Buffalo and 30 federal ambulance teams working upstate and in central New York. FEMA will also be sending 50 additional ambulance teams to New York City, Bray said.

In addition to the federal aid, New York is opening its stockpiles and sending medical equipment, including oxygen tanks and other supplies, to hospitals statewide, Bray said.

Hochul said there is good news: New York is down from 35 hospitals who had to put the brakes on elective surgeries, to 21.

Vaccinated versus unvaccinated hospitalizations

According to the latest data, 30 per 100,000 cases are unvaccinated, compared with 2.1 who are vaccinated.

"If you are vaccinated you have a very low chance of being hospitalized," Hochul said. "Look at those numbers and see what percentage of people are in hospitals who are unvaccinated versus vaccinated, it's an extraordinary difference."

Pediatric hospitalizations continue to rise, up to 299 statewide this week.

Hochul said the FDA final approval date for the Pfizer booster is coming soon for 12 to 15 year olds and added that kids should not only be vaccinated but boosted.

The governor also said communication with local leaders will continue.

"This is the final message. 2022 is the year we beat this pandemic," Hochul said.