Health Care Workers Must Get Boosted: Hochul

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that she is seeking to require all hospital health care workers to receive a booster shot and announced the state would take steps to stop people from overwhelming local emergency rooms seeking tests for mild symptoms.

Still, even as the death toll climbed, with 155 people dying of COVID-19 in the state Thursday, Hochul said she is "cautiously optimistic" that the surge is beginning to plateau.

Cases are still on the upswing. COVID-19 hospitalizations increased from 16 percent to 39 percent, "more than doubling" after the holiday, a surge spurred on by the omicron variant, Hochul said.

In the Hudson Valley, there were 1,178 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, compared to 788 on Dec. 30. In intensive care: 128 compared to 96.

Statewide, 11,548 patients were hospitalized with COVID-10 yesterday, Hochul said.

She said officials had done a deep dive into the numbers, looking at many patients were actually admitted for COVID-19 and how many tested positive while being treated for other issues including overdoses, car accidents or heart attacks.

The folks hospitalized for COVID-19 were overwhelmingly unvaccinated, she said.

As of Friday, there were 82,094 new positive cases of the coronavirus reported statewide, with a seven-day rolling average of 363.41 cases per 100,000; in the Hudson Valley, that number stood at 334.4 cases per 100,000.

"This is still a pandemic," she said.

Testing is also continuing at a brisk pace, with 377,000 tests reported Thursday and millions more kits to be distributed.

Emergency Department crisis

Too many people are going to emergency rooms across the state for a coronavirus test, with 4,753 statewide seeking testing at local emergency departments over the past 24 hours, Hochul said. It's putting more pressure on hospitals already highly stressed by COVID-19 patient load and by cases among the staff.

In the Hudson region, COVID-19 testing cases comprised 18 percent of ER traffic Thursday.

"Please do not go to the emergency room," she begged New Yorkers. "Do not go in if you have mld symptoms. I know you're anxious. You can handle a runny nose, a sore throat, a cough."

She said state health officials are working on getting home-testing kits to the parking lots of the most overwhelmed hospitals to take pressure off the ER staff.

Health care boosters

New York was the first state to mandate vaccinations for health care workers, and now, Hochul said that effort will continue with her efforts to require that health care workers be boosted within two weeks of eligibility, with no test-out option and only medical exemptions.

"We anticipate swift approval and this will take effect immediately," she said.

In response to a reporter's question, she said 92 percent of New York's healthcare workers are vaccinated, one of the highest in the nation, so she doubts mandating booster shots will create the level of challenge that the first mandate did.

"We're already losing healthcare workers without even showing symptoms they're testing positive and going home," she said, referring to the impact isolation and quarantine protocols have had on hospital staffs "who are critical to keeping our healthcare systems going."

Rep. Lee Zeldin, who has announced a run for governor, denounced the news. "Our state's hospitals and other medical facilities are already understaffed. Governor Hochul's last vaccine mandate for healthcare workers and resulting firings made this crisis worse. Now, she's announced her intention to exacerbate the problem by requiring COVID booster shots. Enough with the threats, mandates, fines and firings! It's time to respect medical freedom, follow all of the science, return to normal, and let New Yorkers go on with their lives," he said.

Nursing homes

Hochul said in New York, 77 percent of nursing home residents are fully vaxxed and boosted. However, she said COVID-19 cases are going up in nursing homes and care facilities after the holidays. "This will spread like wildfire," she said. So visitors must now wear surgical paper masks and show proof of a negative test within the past 24 hours.

She said the state had broken the logjam caused when hospitals couldn't release patients to nursing homes by sending in National Guard medics. That program has been so successful that more medics are being trained and will be deployed.

Pediatric cases increasing at more rapid rate

New York State Commissioner of Health Dr. Mary Bassett said a comprehensive report would be released Friday on pediatric cases and said cases have escalated in the same pattern as adult cases, with the onset of omicron. But what is concerning, she said, was that the rate of increase among children was faster — increasing eightfold in children under the age of 5 and tenfold for kids 12 to 18.

While the numbers are still fairly small — with first, 85 hospitalized statewide on Dec. 4, and 571 today — it's the rate of increase that's worrisome, she said. A total of 66 percent of pediatric admissions are unvaccinated, she said.

"These children do not have to be scared, frightened, lying in hospital beds," Hochul said. "There is an answer." She pleaded as a mother that parents get their children vaccinated.

Bruce Blakeman's refusal to adhere to mask mandate

With new Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman defying Hochul's mask mandate, Hochul said: "Those who underestimate me do so at their own peril. I have the law the the state of New York behind me and I will always exercise my authority to protect the health of the people of this state."

State law supercedes rulings in counties or other jurisdictions, she said. "Municipalities are creatures of the state, have to follow state law," she said.

In addition, she said, states have to follow regulations set in place by the State Education Department, who "came out strongly" and said they wanted to continue the mandate. Those who do not will suffer "consequences, including fines and cessation of funding," Hochul said.

She said she always said she was going to take a different approach and empower localities to do the right thing; she said she believed the mask mandate or vaccination option was the right thing to do.

Counties should be using the authority granted by the state of New York to enforce the mandate, she said.

Hochul said she is appealing, "not to elected leaders who are not taking their responsibilities seriously to protect public health — but to businesses." She said she was grateful to business owners who did what was asked to protect workplaces so there would be no need for a shutdown.
Her goal has always been to protect public health and the economy, she said.