News & Politics

Hochul lays out her winter surge plan 2.0

The governor closed out 2021 with a new plan to combat COVID-19 that mainly consisted of continuing what the state has been doing.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announces New York's winter surge plan 2.0.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announces New York's winter surge plan 2.0. Gov. Kathy Hochul

In her last scheduled public appearance in 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul laid out her new and improved plans to deal with the winter surge of COVID-19, which is expected to get even worse in January. As the state once again broke its single-day record of new cases with 76,500, the governor announced new vaccine mandates for students and faculty at public universities, as well as an extension of the statewide mask or vaccine requirement for private businesses. However, the five-pronged approach Hochul explained was largely much of the same.

Hochul’s winter surge plan 2.0 consisted of five overarching goals: keeping kids in school, continuing testing and masking wearing, preventing illness and death, increasing vaccinations and continuing to work with local leaders. If that all sounds pretty similar to what the state had already been doing, that’s because it was. “We’ve been doing the right things,” Hochul said at a New Year’s Eve briefing in Albany. “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, (but) they don’t have to.”

Perhaps the most significant update to the plan are new requirements for vaccines at State University of New York and City University of New York. Beginning Jan. 15, eligible students will have to get a booster shot in order to come onto campus. And for the first time, faculty will have to be vaccinated as well. The move was met with praise from the one major union that represents college professors, including those at SUNY. “United University Professions has long supported efforts to get the entire SUNY community vaccinated… which is why we applaud Governor Hochul’s latest effort announced today,” said union president Fred Kowal in a statement.

Hochul also extended the mandate for private businesses to either require proof of vaccination or a mask for entry until at least Feb. 1. She said she wanted to make the announcement well before the original Jan. 15 end date – when she said she would revisit the mandate to decide if it needed to be extended – to give businesses enough prior notice. “This is all geared toward keeping the economy open,” Hochul said of her decision. “The other alternative is to say, shut it all down.”

Absent from the new winter surge plan were new plans to address the state’s ever decreasing hospital bed capacity. The state tallied nearly 8,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations yesterday, another 600 person, one-day increase that the state has seen for the past several days. If that rate continues, the state is only days away from the January peak in 2021, and weeks away from hospitalization rates unseen since March 2020.

Instead, Hochul simply touted the success of her executive order allowing the state to halt elective surgeries in hospitals that were nearing capacity. The original list of 32 hospitals issued on Dec. 6, when the order took effect, had decreased to 21. “We want to continue having those numbers decline,” Hochul said, adding that her administration is “in constant communication” with hospitals to determine which should go on and off the list. She then emphasized the need for more people to get vaccinated and boosted, as data shows the vast majority of people in hospitals with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Although Hochul said that discussions about hospital surge and flex plans are part of the state’s “overall strategies,” she offered no other details, nor announced any new state guidance in that area. 

Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said that health officials are concerned about hospitalizations, but stressed that the state is not struggling yet. “It seems clear the omicron does not cause as severe (a) disease as the previous variants," Bassett said. "The challenge before us is simply the numbers."

The governor also indicated that a vaccine mandate for school children likely won’t come soon. “We have mandates in place, starting with the first in the nation to require healthcare workers to be vaccinated,” Hochul said about the prospect of new mandates, including an eye towards school. She also touted the 2 million tests to students in New York City as a positive means to keep them in school. “My goal is to be the one who says mandates are over and to say that masks are over, but we are not there yet,” Hochul said, once again emphasizing her focus on testing sites and vaccines.

At the same time, Hochul did not explicitly rule out the prospect of school closures in January, a prospect she would like to avoid. “We’re being asked to predict the future here, and that’s not something we can do,” Hochul said, mentioning that the state is prepared with a game plan for a “worst case scenario.” Among the worrying trends right now are increasing pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19.

Hochul did announce new deployments of state and federal resources to help with pandemic response around the state and to support hospitals with the sickest patients. Among those are medical response teams sent by FEMA and the Department of Defense to a handful of upstate hospitals that have consistently had high numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations, including SUNY Upstate and Erie County Medical Center. FEMA will also send 50 new ambulance teams to New York City early next month, freeing up the teams already in New York to assist in the North Country. 

At the state level, Hochul also said she would send 50 National Guard members to New York City to provide nonclinical support. The state will also train 80 members in EMT services so that more people can provide clinical medical support around the state.

Otherwise, the rest of the plan largely consisted of continuing what the state had already been doing, like getting masks out to counties, home-tests to parents for the Test to Stay Program and vaccines in the arms of kids.The state will open six new testing sites around the state to help with increased demand, as well as two MTA pop-up sites. Hochul added that she has asked the federal government for more supplies, access to more antiviral medicines and the ability to require nursing home visitors to be vaccinated. 

Hochul ended both her press conference and the year on a positive note, despite the ever increasing caseload and hospitalizations. “(2022) is the year we beat this pandemic,” Hochul said. “And I am so energized.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.