ALBANY COUNTY — “We’re going to keep things open as we always have,” said Governor Kathy Hochul at a press conference Tuesday morning at a Bronx hospital.

Her strategies for doing this have included, just after she became governor in August while the Delta variant was dominant, requiring masks in schools and also requiring vaccination for school personnel with an option to test out weekly.

Then, on Dec. 10, as the Omicron variant surged, Hochul implemented, through the state’s health department, a mask-or-vax policy so that businesses must either require masks indoors or require proof of vaccination.

On Friday, Hochul announced the mask-or-vax requirement, initially set to expire on Feb. 1, would be extended until Feb. 10 and then re-evaluated in two-week increments.

An appeal, now in New York’s middle-level court, has yet to be decided. On Monday, the court granted the health department’s request for a stay, which means the mask mandate can remain in effect through March 2.

Also on Monday, a Monmouth University poll was released that showed that 70 percent of Americans agree with the sentiment that “it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives” — including 78 percent of those who report having gotten COVID and 65 percent of those who say they have not been infected.

The main difference in the belief that it is time to move on is due to partisanship — ranging from 89 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of independents to 47 percent of Democrats.

Only one-third of the public feels the country will get the outbreak under control and return to normal by the end of the year while 28 percent now believe a return to normalcy will never happen, which is up from 22 percent who felt this way in September and from just 6 percent who were similarly pessimistic exactly a year ago.

“Americans’ worries about Covid haven’t gone away,”  said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a statement, releasing the poll numbers. “It seems more to be a realization that we are not going to get this virus under control in a way that we thought was possible just last year.”

 

Waiting for court decision

On Monday evening, Hochul cited the state’s declining rates as she commended the middle-level court in New York’s three-tiered system for granting a full stay to keep mask mandates in place while an appeal is decided.

A Long Island judge at the lowest rung of the state’s three-tiered judicial system had struck down New York’s mask mandate a week ago, on Monday, Jan. 24.

Justice Thomas Rademaker of the state Supreme Court in Nassau County said Hochul’s administration had exceeded its authority in implementing the rule.

After a hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 25, Associate Justice Robert J. Miller, on the middle-level appellate court, ordered that a stay on the lower court’s decision would remain in effect until at least Jan. 28.

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa lauded the stay and supported the appeal, saying that the mask mandate remains in effect for schools across the state.

In his decision, Rademaker did not question the settled science of mask-wearing; rather, he questioned the way the mandate was instituted.

Rademaker wrote that former Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a number of executive orders under the guise of a state of emergency, but that the legislature rolled back his — and every subsequent governor’s — executive-order powers in March 2021.

The current mask mandate went into effect by way of a state Department of Health rule on Dec. 10, 2021 as the Omicron surge was underway. Rademaker writes that Hochul had endorsed the idea of a mask mandate in a Nov. 26, 2021 executive order declaring a state of emergency, but did not institute one “due to the State Legislature’s proscription against such broad ranging Executive branch lawmaking powers ….”

Instead, the governor pulled a sort of legal end-around and “utilized the New York State Department of Health to issue this ‘emergency’ ‘rule,’” the judge wrote.

Rademaker wrote that, if the governor wanted to institute a mask mandate, the legislature was the correct avenue for doing so.

“We disagree it has to go through the legislature,” Hochul said at a press conference in Syracuse last Tuesday, adding, “I believe we’ll win on the merits.”

On Friday, Jan. 28, as Hochul announced that the mask-or-vax mandate for indoor venues is being extended to Feb. 10, she also said, “As we know, the school masking policy remains in effect, despite the fact that there was a little blip, but we are back on track legally.”

“When our schools are open and kids are safe there, moms and dads can get back to work. We can start that path to being normal and there’ll come a time when we can talk about lifting this as well. We’re just not there yet,” said Hochul during her press conference on Friday.

On Monday evening, Hochul released a statement saying, “I commend the Appellate Division, Second Department for granting a full stay to keep our masking regulations in place for the duration of our appeal. My primary responsibility as governor is to keep New Yorkers safe. Mask regulations keep our schools and businesses safe and open, protect vulnerable New Yorkers, and are critical tools as we work to get through this winter surge.

“Thanks to our efforts, including mask regulations, cases are declining and we are seeing major progress in the fight against COVID-19. I thank the Attorney General and her team for their defense of these common sense measures, and I am confident we will continue to prevail. We are committed to doing everything in our power to keep New Yorkers safe.”

On Tuesday, members of the Assembly Republican Conference sent a letter to Hochul, asking her to drop the appeal of Rademaker’s decision.

“At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Governor Cuomo requested and received from the Legislature enhanced powers to deal with an unprecedented public health emergency ….,” the letter says. “When the original emergency declaration ended last June, those enhanced powers were deemed legally repealed. Absent express authorization by the Legislature, neither the Governor nor the Department of Health possess such powers.”

At her Bronx press conference on Tuesday, Hochul said she is continuing conversations with heads of hospitals, school superintendents, and business leaders as well as consulting with experts in Washington, D.C. on what trends they are seeing in other states and in other parts of the world.

“We’re not prepared to throw in the towel and say we’re done fighting COVID,” said Hochul.

She again itemized the three sets of data that she consults in making a decision on continuing mandates:

— The rate of infection and how fast it is falling;

— Vaccination rates with a driver of lifting the mandate being an increase in vaccinated kids, an age group that is lagging; and

— Hospital capacity, said Hochul, stating she still had to bring in the military to help stressed hospital staff.

 

Vaccine progress

On Monday, Moderna’s vaccine against COVID-19 was granted full approval by the Food and Drug Administration for people 18 and older. This followed approval in August of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for people 16 and older.

A panel of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts is set to meet on Feb. 4 to vote on endorsing the FDA approval of the Moderna vaccine. Moderna plans to market the vaccine under the name Spikevax.

The Moderna vaccine has been available under emergency use authorization since Dec. 18, 2020.

“While hundreds of millions of doses of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine have been administered to individuals under emergency use authorization, we understand that for some individuals, FDA approval of this vaccine may instill additional confidence in making the decision to get vaccinated,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. in a statement.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been given emergency authorization for use in people 5 years old and older and authorization for younger children is expected within several months.

 

Expanding medical capacity

“The cavalry have arrived,” said Hochul at the start of her Tuesday press conference. 

A row of medical brigade workers stood behind her, dispatched by the Department of Defense to help at the North Central Bronx Hospital.

“The Bronx faced one of the highest death rates,” said Vanessa Gibson, Bronx borough president.

While infection-rate percentages are now in the single digits, Gibson said, many Bronx neighborhoods had been well into the 30s.

“Our work is not done,” Gibson said.

“They are here because we needed them,” said Hochul of the medical brigade workers. “We needed them to help us get the relief that our overstressed, overworked healthcare personnel have been enduring for such a long time.”

The brigade of 20 includes physicians, nurses, and respiratory technicians.

Three military teams have been sent to New York State so far — to Buffalo, Coney Island, and the Bronx — and four more federal teams have been approved for upstate, Hochul said.

“We already had an overburdened healthcare system,” said Hochul, citing studies that predicted about 32 percent of health-care needs would go unmet.

“We have to rebuild our healthcare, supporting our workers and anticipating the future,” she said. Her proposed budget invests $10 billion in health care with a goal of increasing the health-care workforce by 20 percent in the next five years.

“How do we do that?” Hochul asked, answering herself, “First of all, we have to stop the hemorrhaging of current healthcare workers. They’re still leaving.”

Hochul plans to invest over $4 billion in bonuses and wages for healthcare workers, as well as retention bonuses of up to $3,000 for direct-care workers and health-care workers.

Hochul also said that “bureaucratic barriers” would be removed to bring in doctors and nurses from other states, and that students would be financially supported.

Additionally, she said, $1.6 billion will be spent “for the actual facilities that need the money and they need it now to start rebuilding back.”

 

Positive trends

Hochul on Tuesday displayed graphs showing declining numbers of new COVID-19 cases and declining numbers of hospitalizations.

From the peak of 90,000 new cases statewide on Jan. 7, there has been a 90 percent drop to 7,119 new cases reported on Feb. 1.

The seven-day average for the statewide infection rate is now at 5.9 percent, a 17-point drop from its peak of 23 percent on Jan. 2.

Hospitalizations on Monday totalled 7,100, a 43 percent drop from the statewide peak.

Despite the downward trend, Hochul said, “We’re still going to take this seriously.”

Hochul urged New Yorkers who got just the first shot of a two-shot vaccination series — over 95 percent of New Yorkers have gotten at least one shot — to get the second shot and then, when eligible, to get a booster shot.

Data from the CDC shows that people who haven’t been vaccinated are 50 times more likely to die of the coronavirus than people who are fully vaccinated. Further, people who have also gotten their booster shots rarely die of the virus.

The latest COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report from The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation shows that 42 percent of all adults nationwide have received a COVID-19 booster and more than three quarters (77 percent) have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, up slightly since November (73 percent) before the Omicron variant triggered a surge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

While Hochul said that “Pfizer is making great progress on getting a vaccine to the FDA for approval, possibly by the end of this month, for children under the age of 5,” she expressed concern over the low percentage of New Yorkers in the 5-to-11 age group who are vaccinated.

Less than 30 percent of New Yorkers in that age group are fully vaccinated and less than 40 percent have received one shot.

Starting in early December, Hochul said, Medicaid has been required to cover COVID vaccine counseling visits, regardless of whether or not the child is ultimately vaccinated.

“We’re calling on the federal government to issue guidance so all insurers can cover COVID vaccination consultations for families and children,” said Hochul.

She also said that insurance companies should be covering incentives to families for children’s vaccination and that the Department of Financial Services will offer guidance.

 

Long COVID

The state’s health commissioner, Mary Bassett, is hosting, on Thursday, Feb. 3, expert panels on long COVID, an online event that the public can attend remotely.

Symptoms associated with long COVID can vary widely, from cardiovascular problems like heart palpitations to trouble breathing and excessive fatigue and can include difficulty concentrating or other psychological symptoms, according to a release on the forum. 

Long COVID symptoms can also occur even if the initial COVID illness is not severe and can last for months or even a year.

The forum will include specialists, clinicians, social scientists, advocates, and other stakeholders to share their experiences, expertise, and insights.

The first panel, starting at 9 a.m., will discuss biological causes and the groups most severely affected. The second panel, starting at 11 a.m., will talk about clinical care, risk factors, and treatment guidelines. And the third panel, starting at 1 p.m., will focus on policies, programs, and initiatives that the state can use.

Also, New York State is offering new, online educational sessions to help workers who believe they contracted COVID-19 due to an exposure at work, especially those suffering from ongoing long-haul symptoms.

A series of webinars, offered through the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, will provide information on workers’ rights when it comes to filing a workers’ compensation claim and the cash and/or medical benefits they may be eligible to receive.

Those with a work-related injury or illness have two years from the date of becoming injured or ill to file a workers’ compensation claim, so the deadline is approaching for workers who contracted COVID-19 due to their employment in the early days of the pandemic.

Filing a claim is important because workers’ compensation benefits in an established claim include lifetime medical care for the treatment of the work-related injury or illness.

Even workers who have had a good outcome after COVID-19 can file a claim to protect their future rights to these medical benefits, should they ever need them. While not all claims will be accepted, there is no risk or harm in filing a claim, even if it ends up getting denied.

Free webinars, open to the public, are scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. on three dates: February 23, March 9, and April 13.

 

State seeks $1.6 billion more for ERA

On Friday, Hochul announced that New York State has requested an additional $1.6 billion from the United States Treasury Department to help tenants and landlords who have applied for Emergency Rental Assistance.

The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance — the agency that administers the program — made the formal request ahead of the next round of federal rent relief reallocation. If granted, the funding would cover roughly 174,000 tenant applications that are not yet funded.

“We delivered nearly $1.4 billion for renters struggling from the pandemic, but we must do more. New York State continues to demonstrate a large need for this federal funding,” Hochul said in a statement.

“Our appeal to the Treasury to reexamine its reallocation formula to prioritize high-tenant states like New York represents the latest in our continued and vigorous advocacy for those still reeling from the financial impact of the pandemic,” she said.   

Using rent relief funds, more than 166,000 New York households were protected from eviction and nearly $1.4 billion was distributed to landlords through 109,000 direct payments, the governor’s office reports.

After fully exhausting initial funds for this program, the state requested $996 million in reallocation funding from the Treasury Department, or about enough to cover about 70,000 unfunded applications. The Treasury Department provided New York with an additional $27 million — enough to fund fewer than 2,000 applications.

Earlier this month, New York, California, New Jersey, and Illinois sent a joint letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to request additional federal funding and ensure high-need states with large tenant populations are prioritized.

“As Governors representing over a quarter of America’s population and 30 percent of the nation’s low-income renter households, the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program has been a crucial lifeline for millions of our residents as the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt,” wrote Hochul, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker in the letter to Yellen.

 

Albany County

This week, Albany County’s 99th of battling the coronavirus, the county’s executive, Daniel McCoy, announced 16 more COVID-related deaths, bringing the county’s toll to 515.

McCoy announced the county’s 500th coronavirus death on Jan. 27. Then the next day he announced both three new deaths as well as five deaths that had occurred earlier in January, in nursing homes, but hadn’t been reported to the county’s health department. The law requires only that the deaths be reported to the state.

Seven deaths followed later in the week.

“January of last year was the deadliest month of the pandemic when there were 89 COVID deaths. This year, that number dropped down to 40 during the same month,” McCoy said in his Tuesday COVID release.

On Wednesday, after reporting three men — one each in their seventies, eighties, and nineties — had died of COVID complications, McCoy in his daily press release said, “January saw a dramatic surge in infections and hospitalizations but our numbers appear to be improving.

“In just the last two weeks, Albany County’s average daily COVID infections have dropped by over 73 percent and the number of [infected] county residents has declined by nearly 34 percent. This is a positive sign for the future, and if we can continue to bring down our infection rate, we can prevent deaths in the future.”

The county’s number of new cases continues to decline from its single-day peak of 1,586 on Jan. 13 with 240 new COVID-19 cases reported by McCoy on Wednesday morning, bringing the seven-day average down to 231.1.

Albany County now has 60.1 COVID cases per 100,000 in population as a seven-day average and an infection rate of 8.5 percent, also as a seven-day average.

Statewide, as a seven-day average, New York has 59.0 cases per 100,000 of population and an infection rate of 6.3 percent, according to the state’s tracker.

For months, guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that, if transmission is high — that is, 50 or more cases per 100,000 — masks should be worn indoors in public.

Since May 2020, the World Health Organization advised governments that, before reopening, rates of positivity in testing (that is, out of all tests conducted, how many came back positive for COVID-19) should remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

Johns Hopkins, which has tracked the infection rate since 2020, as of Wednesday, showed no states below the 5-percent threshold; New York was the lowest at 6.27 percent.

McCoy, on Wednesday morning, reported 10 new hospitalizations of county residents since Tuesday with 80 county residents currently hospitalized with the coronavirus – a net decrease of 11. Thirteen of those hospital patients are now in intensive-care units, down from 15 on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, 80.4 percent of all Albany County residents have received at least a first dose of vaccine, and 73.0 percent are fully vaccinated. The first-dose vaccination rate for the county residents who are 18 and older is at 89.0 percent.

Statewide, 87.6 percent of New Yorkers have gotten at least one shot as have 95.0 percent of New Yorkers 18 and older. At the same time, 74.1 percent of New Yorkers have completed a vaccination series as have 84.6 percent of New Yorkers 18 and older.