NEW YORK (WABC) -- Governor Kathy Hochul has issued a State of Emergency in New York State to help boost hospital capacity and address staffing shortages ahead of potential spikes in COVID cases this winter.
Hochul announced the plan on Friday, which will allow the Department of Health to limit non-essential, non-urgent procedures for in-hospitals or systems with limited capacity (below ten percent staffed bed capacity.)
The new protocols are set to begin on Friday, December 3, and will be re-assessed based on the latest COVID numbers on January 15.
"We've taken extraordinary action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and combat this pandemic. However, we continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Governor Hochul said.
We don't yet know if Omicron variant will be like Delta.
The World Health Organization Friday designated the strain, now named Omicron, as a variant of concern and said multiple studies are underway as advisers continue to monitor the variant.
While scientists say there is reason to be concerned over the variant, they stress there is still a lot we don't know -- including whether the variant is indeed more contagious, whether it causes more severe disease or what its effects on vaccine efficacy may be.
"While this is concerning, as the WHO has indicated, I do think that we have to step back and wait for the science on this," epidemiologist Dr. Abdul El-Sayed told CNN.
If we acknowledge we are unsure of the Omicron variant's impact, why not be proactive in the schools?
There's no need to panic but encouraging boosters (see this large study from Israel on how well boosters do) would seem to help. Mandatory vaccinations for students as well as staff in NYC would seem like a good idea as long as there are reasonable exemptions. I do not understand why there are mandatory vaccinations for staff but not for students 12 years old and over like Los Angeles has with a remote option available for those who don't wish to be vaccinated.
Can my student still attend school if they do not get the COVID-19 vaccine?
Beginning Monday, January 10, 2022, eligible students who do not have proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 will be offered the District's independent study program at City of Angels, unless the student has a qualified exemption or conditional admission.
At the very least, massive COVID testing would seem like a reasonable policy. I have heard that teachers were turned down in NYC for testing when the testers were in their school this past week.
Again, we can look to LAUSD as a model on how to do this properly:
Los Angeles Unified is providing COVID testing for all students and staff.
All students and employees, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, returning for in-person instruction must participate in ongoing weekly COVID testing. This is in accordance with the most recent guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Tests are free, quick, easy, and your personal information will remain confidential!
46 comments:
I love this blog and I get my information from here and it’s all good, but please, enough with the covid fear mongering/worrying.
I am for the vaccination, but this is fear mongering 101.
Remember, numbers lie and liars use numbers. You can manipulate anything using numbers.
Fauci loves attention.
I would like to think that as a society, we are smart enough to not listen to fauci and live our lives!
Why push boosters?they might be useless for the variant.
Testing would be the easiest and least controversial safeguard to introduce. It should have been done already, and now should be implemented immediately. Hey, UFT, where are you? Yet another reason why we must vote for change!!
How about going back to blended learning with remote option?
We know though that our students purposely won't get the vaccine so they don't have to go to school. Also, there would be a lot of reorganizing of schedules as well. Who gets the remote option? Would it go by Seniority?
MY PREDICTION: Adams will require vaccinations for all students with a remote option for those who do not want to take the vaccine or who choose to stay home safely. There will be NO option for teachers. (But it will be a shit show to figure out who will be responsible for remote learning lessons)
Not one of the leaders in NYC cares about students nor do they care about school staff. Kids are losing parents and loved ones, but where is the SEL?
There is none. Our kids deserve much better. Remote options should be available. Instead, they come to school and bring Covid home to their families.
Blue states are experiencing massive surges of the virus as the holiday season arrives, prompting some to reimplement mitigation strategies.
At least we should get spring break 2020 money soon. It is almost December.
I would say to put a travel ban on but that's racist and xenophobic. Oh, wait, one was already put on. I'm confused.
"We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency."
Joe Biden
2/1/20
Right wing answer: Stick head in the sand like an ostrich so you don't have to witness the morgue fill up and then say all's well. Repeat when the next surge comes.
As a black NYC citizen, Adams has the ability to relate to the real fear that many of his inner city followers feel. I believe he will allow a remote option for students. He has also publicly stated his approval of mandatory vaccines for students. Having a remote option along with mandatory vaccines will more than likely be something he will seriously consider. Just wait for the shit show from Staten Island parents who will refuse to get their kids vaccinated and will demand that they still be allowed in school.
Stop giving fauci attention. He makes people live in fear if you allow it
We cannot have remote options! So many kids are messed up socially and academically from being remote. Do you guys not recall cameras off and us as teachers talking to a blank screen of just initials with no participation doing remote? Well, I recall it!
So many kids have told me how they played their parents into letting them remain remote last year and would go back in a heartbeat.
We cannot have kids at home doing no work once again. Remote for kids is a vacation.
I can’t blame them for this mindset. No one is supervising and you do what you want when you want and pass.
September was so hard dealing w kids who were remote last year.
Please stop living in fear!
It’s funny bc no one mentions delta variant anymore. Go back 7-9 months and there is a new ‘worst variant ever’ claim by fauci.
I wouldn’t be shocked if they are manipulating the stock market with this fear and buying up stocks that fell.
the pandemic is over. look at hospitalizations and deaths. over.
why cant we admit this?
But as long as we pass the kids and the graduation rate keeps going up, who cares about the kids social emotional well being?
5:15pm-YOU can stay in the poorly ventilated buildings. I want to be safe at home just like Mulgrew and a great deal of private industry. THEY also don't want to go back to their ventilated buildings. WE need to do what is best for TEACHERS. YES, TEACHERS. My children need a living hrathy parent. I cannot trust the mayor, chancellor and most definitely not the UFT to keep MY SAFETY AT NUMBER 1. Yes, I WANT MY LIFE TO BE MOST IMPORTANT. NOT SORRY. TEACHERS LIVES MATTER MOST ABOVE STUDENTS FAILURE TO LOG IN.
TIME FOR CHANGE IS NOW! TEACHERS SAFETY FIRST!
As this Thurs all of northwell system had 100 patients in COVID beds. NYP 100 too.
Yes, cases will go up only with Delta and enjoying our family this season. Most are just getting treatment at home.
It is endemic. This doesn't = ignore but just expect to get exposed, maybe test positive but most will feel it not too bad.
Nobody knows what will happen but please don't force poor kids to choose vax or no school just to protect the adults perhaps a little.
We adults had 2 vax, plenty of access to N95 respirators if you're really so scared. You can also get your own Winex or other HEPA put it right near you.
Heck get a booster, not me but I got old people around it.
Sky isn't falling.
I get the fear just try to avoid social media and TV news more. If it is hurting your brain and daily joy.
We can deal with this without UFT or DOE support if needed. We did last fall
I do appreciate you sharing how you feel. I know how much it sucks when people around you seem to not take basic precautions. We are then forced to speak up, spend our own $ or just get sick. I'm thankful to have a solid city job with good colleagues.
My friend attended a big wedding.no one asked for vax cards and nobody masked...it is hopeless.i am not vaxxed but I always mask and I am very careful.i don't go to anyone's house. Blended is a good compromise.vaxxing these poor kids with an experiment is criminal imo.
If you have half a brain and live in reality, you know that these variants come up so news stations can have click bait. I get it. They are paid based on viewers.
I wish the people on these blogs understood how vaccinations work. Get the vaccine and boosters and you are less likely to have bad effects of covid.
Heck, most people don’t die from covid! This whole thing has been fear mongering 101.
Look at what this new bs variant did to the stock market.
Don’t for a second think fauci didn’t have anything to do w the market going down Friday.
So Delta was just for click bait. Get a brain.
My whole household has it now. My husband brought it home from a huge outbreak where he works. I’m fairly confident I didn’t infect any of my coworkers because I always double mask and never remove it unless eating (which I do away from others).
We are headed into a huge uptick in cases. It’s already begun. I’m tired of seeing the mask under the noses and chins…and that’s the staff and the students!
If anybody I work with is reading this, we can do better. We owe it to ourselves and the community we serve. Trust me, you don’t want to be where I am now, nor be the reason somebody else is.
With the holidays, numbers will go up. Covid is here forever in some way, shape or form. However, don’t believe things are in a dire state with these new ‘worst variants ever’ that happen on a weekly basis.
Over the past six months, we were told by the faucis of the world that beta, alpha, gamma, delta, delta plus, omicron, or the South African variants were going to destroy us. They haven’t.
Things are never as good or as bad as the news likes to make things out to be. The news needs eyeballs and most Americans are not that independent minded and want to be scared so they have something to complain about.
We need to stop living in fear.
I am sorry to anyone who has had covid lately. I know some vaccinated people who tested positive and they are okay after a few days.
Get the vaccination. It helps!
Also, stop and think for a second. All of these ‘this is the worst variant of them all’ stories have come out when vaccines have been approved for certain age groups. This is not just by pure luck.
We can’t stop kids from wearing masks under their noses or the poor ventilation in schools. Heck, my school is so damn hot that I turn the ac on and have no windows open at all.
Start living your lives and enjoy them! Don’t let fauci and news outlets mind f&$k you! Please. We are all too smart to give fauci the attention he craves to be relevant.
FYI, I respected fauci a year and a half ago and voted for biden. I would do it again, but fauci needs to go away and stop his self-serving ‘numbers and science’ which have caused mental health issues and killed businesses.
Vax rates in Staten Island are about the same as the Bronx and Brooklyn. Those people better do what they’re told. Low lifes who won’t vax their kids need to be removed from society. The government decides for them. That’s the proper way. Who’s going to tell them? Who’s going to round up these outer borough losers who don’t realize the government knows better? I think the triple masked crew of privileged New Yorkers should volunteer. Preferably those from the UWS who surely know better because of all their college degrees.
This new variant is so bad according to fauci, but we can wait for a travel ban. What? B.1.1.1.1.1.1,1,1,1 or it’s 75 sub-variants won’t travel on a holiday weekend so we wait for December 3rd?
The answer is simple. Look at covid numbers in our area. They’re low. We are out of the woods, but still need vaccines and boosters. Why fauci wants us to live in fear except for his own ego I will never understand.
I listened intently to him in spring of 202, but no more. He’s a hack in love with himself at the expense of people’s mental well being.
fake, phony, and false all fear mongering, vaxxed teachers lost their minds.
Delta was a weak nothing strain, PCR test cannot even determine what you have. This moronic name variant is mild like common flu.
Wasn't Trump racist for closing borders to Africa? Keep listening to CNN and Fauci who has been wrong passed 30 years going back to AIDS.
Everything is Restorative Justice now, so now we have to discuss in circles the importance of mask wearing with students who refuse to conform and trust me it has had no effect.
Ostrich UFTers:
This is from the NY Times. You guys need villains so badly.
Countries around the world are scrambling to stop the spread after the W.H.O. described Omicron as a “variant of concern,” its most serious category. The W.H.O. said the variant, first detected in southern Africa, carries a number of genetic mutations that might allow it to spread quickly, perhaps even among those who are vaccinated. But scientists say vaccines seem likely to work against it.
That's the WHO, not Fauci.
From Dr Denisw Dewald
It’s just crazy to watch the evening news and see people getting interviewed and attending events, and no one is wearing masks.
Strong forces to deny the continued pandemic.
Completely nuts. We are prolonging the pandemic.
101,
Stay home and live in fear. Your choice. Others choose to live differently. Their choice.
Get busy living. Just get vaccinated.
At least you say to get vaccinated.
The sane approach is to get vaxxed and boosted and the go live your life. Especially if you're not obese or have some condition. A healthy, thin, vaxxed person is not at great risk from covid. No more bunker mentality. If you are at risk, you may want to be cautious. But, to what degree? This thing might never go away.
Covid isn’t going away ever.
Having said that, get the vaccine, get boosters, get tested, wear a mask on planes and in schools and a doctor’s office and enjoy life!
Stop wishing for remote to return or giving fauci or news outlets attention they are craving.
If this new variant were really bad(they have all had unique ‘timing’) then why wait a week to impose a restriction?
Go. Live! That’s all we have!
I hope everyone slept ok living in fear of this variant. Apparently a new variant is also opening this week. A colleague said WHO and fauci are announcing in the next day or so.
Wake up!how many kids got covid and got really sick or died?many are maimed and killed by the shot? Why inject this experiment for something that is not a threat? Wake up before it's too late.more variants, more vaccines, follow the gravy train or jump off before it is too late.
The experts are still hoping we can get to the other side of this thing. A couple more variants May convince everyone that there is simply no getting to the other side. We will just have to live with it, take a booster shots regularly, and get on with our lives. But for now the borders will be closed and the elective surgery will be shut, and the mask fetish will go on.
Fear mongering 101: Create a non-story, make it a story and watch everyone panic.
How many industries and jobs and activities have been lost?
We need to move on!
How many lives have been lost? Get your head out of the sand. If it isn't serious, no problem. If it is and we aren't preparing, shame on all of us.
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Stop falling for click bait
Court blocked Biden's mandate in 10 states.how is it that Biden is so worried that workers would infect patients?we didn't hear if that in 2020.these courageous people risked it all and some died.they worked with barely any ppe and they deserve not to be shat on and villainized.this country is ungrateful to them and to 911 first responders.they are in violation of thanksgiving.why pardon the turkeys? They should look in the mirror, repent, apologize, and do better.
Meanwhile, people don't follow mask rules and the numbers get worse...masks aren't perfect, especially the cheapos...but I believe they help. I'm at home, but where is uft?many report on this blog about ventilation and lack of making and distance. This was predictable...so another surge cuz people always break the rules.if I write more; it will be censored...
I read there are no variants.ir is different pieces of the strand.idk if this is accurate.but it seems like delta was no worse...I might be wrong.idk
Fauci is all over the news talking about this nonsense.
To those who live in fear, you must live this. Go buy all toilet paper, paper towels and napkins again and hide in your basements.
Heck, even biden said don’t panic.
You really need to EDUCATE yourself. Please.
When you do, say, go to medical school and have decades in public service saving thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives through research and policy initiates and PRACTICING MEDICINE, THEN, speak out on a blog like you are an authority on something… other than you extremely small minded and frankly DUMBSOUNDING opinionated nobody.
Remember … an education is so vey precious…
No they don’t. Stop spreading misinformation
I don’t let fauci and his attention seeking fear mongering run my life. No offense
Gosh, it is frightening to think that people as feeble minded as some of these fauci haters exist…
And to top it off, the ignorant and uninformed …. Preach to others! It is disgusting…ignorance that is empowered by the right of free expression….
It actually saddens me… to heart how twisted some people’s minds are,,,
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