YourNNY Your Source for News & Sports in Northern New York

North Country maintains state’s highest COVID-19 infection rate

thank you all for coming out this afternoon. I wanted to give you an update on where we are with respect to covid and I so look forward to the day when I don’t have to open with those lines, but for now we’re seeing a continuation of the delta variant, not abating. And uh, we’re going to continue to stay ahead of this. As I have heard me say for nearly 45 days now, the focus is keeping young people in schools, returning people to work and reopening New York state’s safely. So we all know the answer to get people vaccinated and that’s exactly what we’re going to continue focusing on. Where are we today? Let’s take a look at them have trending downward. I’m liking that, but we still have some areas North country, come on north country, you can do better house up there last weekend and talked this up quite a bit. Our daily uh, statewide is 2.34, which is, which is good, but we have to focus on Mohawk family as well. And some of our other areas, which I know we can do better, extraordinary to me to see New York City. 1.29, congratulations to New York City. I spend a lot of time walking the streets, incognito at least for now. And I see a lot of people wearing masks very good compliance, at least in the diners I pop into or I have to show that I? M vaccinated. So, uh, those strategies are working in a densely populated area, which we know could actually being far worse, but they’re actually working very hard to keep this down our hospitalizations. We tracked this and I just want to point out on the on this graph here we are paralleling where we were last year. The low point that you see was really the late summer fall and all of a sudden you know that bump reflects the fall surge. The winter surge. And that is what keeps me up at night seeing that trend. And how we thought we were out of the woods. We are ready to declare victory. And all of a sudden it changed and Uh I’d like to think that that will not happen. But we’re heading into the time of year before going indoors and lots of fun festivals and gatherings and holidays that are important to us. Uh we did lose 38 people in one day and that is just absolutely heartbreaking. The reality is and we have to keep fighting back and get more people vaccinated. We and that that’s the same number as we had last week in my last briefing as well. So that’s very much on our minds. Regional hospitalizations were watching with the I. C. U. Beds. Um But also this does not reflect the opportunity that these hospitals have to adapt quickly if necessary. I mean these are still continuing in most cases their elective surgeries that is something we know very quickly can transition to non elective surgery. Uh only inpatient and not have elective surgeries if they need to add up. But were in constant communication with the leaders of the hospitals in these regions to be able to adapt quickly if necessary, vaccination rate still going up. Last time we had a conversation we’re uh quite a bit lower than this. We’re still making progress. Especially among our 17 to 12 year olds. I want to do better. Uh Let’s get that done before their younger siblings will soon be eligible, which I hope will be before too long the 5 to 11 year olds. But 84% with at least one dose. Almost 85. That’s good. That’s good. But we were always told last year when We hit 70% we’re gonna be in great shape and now they moving the goal line and now we’re being told about 90% of what we have to achieve. So we’re within striking distance but we have to keep pushing. We really do. And uh we’re gonna keep pushing younger, younger new Yorkers to get vaccines to our continuation of the pop ups. They’re fun. Kids like seeing these come to their schools. We’re going to keep doing that. We’ve Announced 120 sites over the 12 week period. Lot of people are partnering with us. I’ve been at some of the sights and community centers and schools and I really do appreciate all they’re doing for us. I want to just reflect on some of our mandates. We had a lot of coverage last week in terms of our hospital And nursing home mandate to be vaccinated. We have another one coming October seven that adult care facilities have to be vaccinated by October seven. And this is a good place to be in right now. And we saw last time a dramatic increase as the days wound down and I were already starting from a good place right now. This is up from 77% when I took august office october august 24th and we’re approaching the numbers we need to hit. So we’re seeing that those deadlines have a way of uh focusing the mind on doing the right thing. We appreciate everyone who’s doing that. We want to talk about R. O. M. H. Office of mental health and O. P. W. D. D. Uh Um people with disabilities facilities, we want to make sure that we have uh safety and those as well. The ones that are hospital settings, we want them to have their first dose by the 11th. I’m sorry November one and we’ll start weekly testing for those who are unvaccinated again. This is a category where more people are have to be coming in and out. Uh not not with the same care provider in other settings but we’re gonna start focusing on this right now and reaching out to them to let them know these are expectations. I don’t think there’ll be any surprise but we’ll have the full vaccine mandate for these hospital settings which are analogous to the hospital settings are already doing it. So, it just makes sense. This is what we’re doing. We’re very excited. I’m going to be having a call with the White House later this afternoon to talk about how we’re progressing on a number of fronts. But one is when we’re going to be able to get younger Children involved. Pediatricians get ready. We want you to start signing up to make sure you have full access to the vaccine. So we don’t waste a single moment once the approval comes and pediatrician offices are the most logical place. A lot of adults are used to going into a pharmacy for their flu shot. I’ve done that myself, but I think when it comes to your child, you’re going to feel more secure in your doctor’s office and so we don’t want to have any problems with them, not be able to do this for families and making sure they have enough supply. So pediatricians please enroll so we can track you and make sure you have what you need. These breakthrough infections trending upward. We’ve seen more cases. .8% of all cases or breakthrough people have already been vaccinated and hospitalizations creeping up a little bit again, unvaccinated. People still have 10 times more risk of developing covid. That should be the headline 10 times the risk of developing covid and and also a more severity when it does happen. Uh as opposed to someone who is vaccinated, but I’m on a daily basis now encountering people talking to people hearing about people who are in that breakthrough categories. So there is a strong anxiety And again, this is another conversation I’m gonna have with the White House. When will we expect approvals for the other forms of vaccination? I’m a J and J person myself waiting on that modern as well. We’re doing well as Pfizer but we also want to make sure that those other of vaccine brands are approved soon so we can get people the fortification that there need need to have. So That’s what we’re concerned about how many people have already had boosters were about 303,000 and that’s just up from just about a week ago. We 104 47,000. So there is interest in these booster shots, which is great. And we have categories of people that know they’re eligible right now. But I just want to see that expanded. I want to get to the point where they don’t, they recommend that everybody get the booster shot and I’ll be having that conversation today as well. Uh these are the categories where they’re available now. Um as I mentioned before, it’s 65 older underlying health conditions, high risk settings working high and and live in high risk setting. That means right now we have about three million new Yorkers eligible? We have enough supply. We’re ready to go. Let’s go those in people’s arms to protect you from this with the unknown for this fall. And here’s the high risk occupations that I’ve covered before. We just want to remind everybody that if you’re in these groups classifications, we encourage you right now. If you’ve already uh had been fully vaccinated and you’ve had at least six months laps, please get your booster shot. Also, this was a little unclear early on in the pandemic. You know what pregnant women should do. And we’ve been want to make sure the word gets out that the CDC FDA and our own experts are saying that pregnant people who get covid at a higher risk, let them know that they have a higher risk of severe illness and preterm birth and people who are pregnant and want to get pregnant really should make sure they have that vaccine as well. And that was gonna one of those questions early on. But this just seems to be settled that uh it prevent it builds up antibodies that might protect their babies as well. So let’s get the message out to pregnant people. Uh we just have to find more creative ways to get vaccinated and you know, part of it is just getting the information about where to find it close when you It’s hard to just when you just take a second to realize last december january february. Everybody wanted a vaccine and you couldn’t wait for your age group and you couldn’t wait to find out. Is there a mass vac site near you and where you’re going to get it? And everyone just thought if we could only have access to that, the limited supply, everybody was so anxious about this. Now for many, many months it has been so available and we’re just in a different situation and unexpected when an unnecessary one where we literally have to find more creative ways to convince people that getting a vaccine is smart for them. One way we’ve want to support people from other states is to say that when you come to new york, if you’ve been vaccinated, you have an app on your phone that will be the, we’re going to be the first in the nation that has an app created to validate passes from other states. Now, that’s a good news story. The bad news is I think there’s only five other states that have this. So it’s a limited use. But I’m gonna be working with our neighbours, especially in the metropolitan area of pennsylvania Connecticut New Jersey in particular and making sure that we can have uh, you know, individuals from their states come into our facilities come into our theaters, go into our restaurants and be able to have the businesses, be able to download this app and be able to check uh, the validation of a vaccine from another state. So we hope that this becomes more universal. You know, we have a lot of people who are snowbirds, they go to florida and my dream was just to say, well, ok, if you’ve been vaccinated florida come up here, you can show it on your amp except florida isn’t really big into vaccinations and that’s another whole topic. So that’s that’s not working out for us. But uh we’re doing the best we can. Right? So this is really important for our comeback for tourism. For businesses. Business travelers, you want to business travelers start coming back. It’s really important to start filling our hotels and our restaurants. And you heard me yesterday announcing 25 more million dollars to help restaurants indirectly by getting money to food banks and food distribution centers so they can purchase food from restaurants, get them into the homes of the people that they serve and support. You know, the restaurants will do better with that. So they are very excited about this. But we’re just trying to hit this from so many different angles and it’s it’s been a long haul and we’re getting a screen. If you have any ideas, let me know one was let’s lean into our sports teams and uh I’m not taking credit for this, but I don’t know if this ever happened in the history of new york where all of our sports teams and you throw the Yankees on top of that. That was a heck of a weekend. Uh, but so we did have a confidence a lottery I mentioned a couple weeks ago, so we’ve had 13 winners and more drawings to go to just, you know, you get vaccinated. Yeah. Into our drawing and you’ve got a chance to see one of your favorite sports teams or get some of the paraphernalia or even have a chat with one of our athletes. So, um, that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to make a little bit fun. I love sports. It’s all good. But go new york teams again as we approach some more challenges this week. Stay tuned on that. Um, but here’s where we are. Let’s wrap it up and just say, we know the vaccine works. Uh, we know vaccine mandates work. We’re gonna be having to talk about some more going forward. Not my favorite thing to do, but sometimes it’s necessary. And that comes down to just a gathering I had this morning invited county executives to have a conversation with me about their challenges and I was thanked profusely for having a mask mandate day one because that took the pressure off them and their school boards and their school districts that the state stepped in and said to do this. Same with the vaccination mandates for hospitals and nursing homes. It was not an easy decision because a lot of people’s lives are affected, but I have to just be clear eyed and laser focused on the priorities that I must have as the governor of this state and that is to protect people’s health. And we feel confident that this is the approach that has worked. Give people enough notice. They can be fully compliant at the end of the day. They will not go into a hospital or a nursing home and their most vulnerable state. They’re not healthy, they’re not well and they will not be exposed to someone who is supposed to take care of them, Who then gives them the virus. That is what we’ve been working very hard to accomplish. And I hope that other states will follow our lead on that as well. Um It’s all about just getting vaccination. Um so I’d be happy to take your questions at this time and I got a feeling you have a few Yes kevin we’re going to start off with zoom. Actually if you don’t mind, our first question, your first question comes from Maya Kaufman. It trains new york Maya. Your mic is open. Hello, Maya. Can you hear me now? Yes we can. All right. Thanks so much for taking my question governor huckle. Uh This has to do with the data on your vaccine portal. Um And what isn’t on the vaccine portal I wanted to ask if you’ll commit to releasing and bear with me. I’ve got a list um individual facilities, number of employees dismissed for noncompliance with the mandate facility level rates and numbers of staff with at least one dose of the vaccine. Since currently you just disclosed the percent with completed vaccination series and uh all the same data for individual home care agencies, state run psychiatric centers and other health care facilities that currently have no individual data on your online vaccine tracker. Happy to look into that for you. I I absolutely want to be as transparent. We can I just have to know how long it’s gonna take together all that. Is that available in real time? So we’re just gonna have to uh ask a lot more questions of our partners and get that information uh from them directly and then processes than get that out there. But I think we want everyone to have a clear picture of what’s going on with our mandates. That’s important me. I just can’t guarantee I’m gonna have it to tonight. But we need to gather it from those entities that have been affected and we’ll make sure that we get information out. Thank you Governor. We just have one more question from zoom. And then we’ll toss it back to the room. That question comes from Catherine. Funk. She is from W. N. Y. C. Catherine. Your mic is open. Hi. Hi Governor. Local. Um, and related to the first question. I was wondering if you could give us an update right now on state run hospitals In terms of the vaccine mandate. Um, How many people have been suspended or fired? How many are requesting religious exemptions And uh what kind of staffing issues you’re hearing about again. This is information that doesn’t come to us without us having to go to the individual hospitals and nursing homes affected. So I’ll check on the status of that. It’s a fluid situation right now because a lot of people are holding out until the court decision on the 12th of october related to our exemption. Well, they think there’s an exemption uh the non exemption for religious uh reasons. So That is why we don’t have the Clearest picture right now. We’ll have uh 100% clarity when that ends. And we’ll see the pool of people who will be asked to leave or those who have a conversion, so to speak. And uh all of a sudden decided is in the best interests of themselves to get a vaccination. So so bear with us as we you know, want to get information out as close to real time as we can. But understand that this is the first time this data has been uh a master collected or even solicited and we will get information out as soon as we can. People are getting denied for COVID rent relief than excluded worker aid. And how many are appealing the administration has been releasing that data to 80 and do these New York needs to allocate more money to those funds. And if so how much we’re asking for more money. In fact, I had a conversation when I had a call with the new york state congressional delegation and Senator schumer was on that and the way the program is set up and we received a significant amount of money. But as you all know, when I first took office a few weeks ago that money was not getting out, there were people suffering people who just were angst so desperately anxious about how they’re gonna make their rent payments and landlords who really needed to get paid. They hadn’t been paid in a long time. So we brought in experts, we brought in uh you know, sharp people like Kathryn Garcia and others to just supercharge that whole process and get the money out. And as a result we are so successful, I get to the exact number. I don’t have it in front of me uh were so successful in getting out to people that were now running out of it. But I mentioned the congressional delegation, the program was set up to be able to reallocate money that was not spent in other states and bring it back to states that it requested. So we have a request in to the Secretary of the Treasury. That’s the process we have to follow. We are very hopeful to get a yes on that question and Senator schumer and our whole delegation of working on that, but we’ll keep you posted on that. So I don’t know but I can get free later today. The number of people who have received the money and how many are still waiting for it? That’s an important program. We have to get more money for them. I was just wondering how many people have been denied, How many are appealing both for the Red relief and the excluded Well, the excluded worker fund. Uh, I’m not gonna stand here. I don’t have the dead in front of me. Um, we’re just about out of that too. That was about $2.1 billion. And again, another area where the money was not going out. We’re glad that people have. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve spoken to are so grateful that they have that lifeline. And we’ll actually get to the numbers as soon as we can. And again, I want more money into those programs, especially the rent relief, because we know there’s a mechanism that it can come back to the state. Uh, I can’t Well, we’ll see whether the other states spent their allocations or not. And hopefully there’s money left over for us. You’re raising a lot of criticism for comments you recently made out of Brooklyn Church in which you said that the vaccine was from God and you referred to parishioners in that church as Apostles when you were urging them to get the vaccine. Uh, there’s a lot of people took offense to your comments. Some calling them sinful in nature because they felt that you were acting like a God when you made these comments. Do you regret the comments? They’re also part of a lawsuit. Do you regret the comments? And what’s your response? I was speaking to an audience that understood that there are ways to convey a message and one is them to meet people where they are when you are in a church and you’re talking about scriptures and talking to people who believe in a higher power as do I. I used a message that I believe would connect with them. I have no trouble being criticized. I get criticized every day of the week. It’s fine. But if I can convince someone to go out and in a sense, not be my apostles but apostles for the cause, which simply means that you’re out there promoting something because you truly believe in it. If I can convince one more person to get the vaccine and it results in someone not getting covid and saving a life, then people can criticize my delivery, my mechanism. My words. I’m gonna fight for every person to state and get more people vaccinated even after three times for the numbers uh, vacancies because of the mandate. And you were asked last week as well why should new Yorkers except that you don’t have the numbers available vacancies at hospitals due to the vaccine mandate When that could put people at risk because the numbers are changing by the moment. I think there’s just a fundamental misunderstanding of how this all came about. There are people on one given day who are saying they’re not getting the vaccine as it gets closer to the date or not? Even afterwards. People are starting to realize that their exemption requests may not be granted. So, any number we give you at that moment is not an accurate number. I just I will be able to give very accurate numbers soon, but we’ll know because we’re in litigation over this, that is going to be a definitive date when we will know yes or no. Are these people getting vaccines and what are the vacancies and how many more people? But I will tell you what independent of the numbers we set up a system to be responsive to any institution that needed help. And you know what we did. I’ve talked about this for weeks. We set up all these opportunities, whether it was using student nurses, whether people whose licences had lapsed, whether or not uh someone coming in from another state that we need to make accommodations to get them available. I said I was ready to bring in the National Guard if we wanted. And so we’ve reached out, we’ve offered help. Very few have taken up because they are also required to have their own emergency staffing plans themselves. So we’re really layering on top of what was already required of them, which were put in place well over a year ago. So it’s an evolving situation. This is not okay. I I asked about student nurses filling the roles and the local hospital system told me that they can’t put student nurses in those roles. So what are they supposed to do? We already have, we have multiple centers in Albany that are closed because of the vaccine mandate. Well, maybe we need to let them know that what I did in my executive action allows for just that, Well, hospital system says that they’re not qualified to fill the roles. Well, depends on the role they’re being asked to do if they can fill in for someone else. And people even talked about this whole idea of having the not pre authorizing insurance claims for a short time. That was driven by the fact that I had been told and I understand we actually have medical doctors and nurses, highly skilled nurses whose time is diverted to doing the paperwork to review these uh, insurance cases at a time when if I’m facing a staffing crisis, I’m gonna say, okay, team, let’s let this slide for a little bit and shift these people into a role where we need them. So it’s all about then about the adaptability and flexibility that I’ve instituted to let the institutions do it. They need to, if they don’t want to use to nurses, they don’t have to, I’m not saying they’re going to go in and do brain surgery. I’m saying that they can provide a role that might free up someone else to do it where they have the right skills. And I’m happy to talk to them if they don’t understand my directive, which was to remove the barriers so they would have the flexibility they need. So we’ll talk to folks at all, but we have we’ll talk to him again. And uh, I’m telling you, it’s not gonna be a perfect situation. I think you have been quoted as saying this weeks ago, this will not be a perfect scenario, but I am so proud that we stuck with it. I’m proud of the Nurses and doctors and health care workers who did what was right and our numbers in a very short time. And so we get through this litigation will be at 100% because you will not be working in a facility unless you’ve been vaccine and we will end up stopping this vaccine a lot from I’m sorry, stopping this pandemic from spreading a lot sooner than other states. Because we’re tough. It’s not easy. But it’s tough. I’m going to take another question. Burn it. Burn it up. One of the women that accused former governor cuomo of sexual harassment Lindsay Boylan said that you should quote, absolutely get rid of J Jacobs after yesterday’s revelation that he gave the former governor of call before he endorsed you. So wondering, will you use your power to employ A different person to that role? And especially considering this 45 day window is coming up and you said you’re gonna be cleaning house. But curious if you think it’s appropriate for somebody to be calling the former governor who is endorsing you. I really don’t spend a lot of time speculating on what people are doing. I really don’t mean 45 days was for me to build my government team, uh not not political positions. And so, um, I don’t know how to convince you that I am not distracted. You know what I have in my plate. This is just one of the many issues that I’m working on intensely and I’ve been, And this is my 13th election. I’ve been around this business a long time. And I also know that there are seasons to this. People want to start chatter and conversations and all kinds of distractions of early on before we get closer to an election. I will not be distracted because that is not good for the people of New York. If I’m out there running down and trying to respond to and I don’t even know what people are saying in that space, because that’s not relevant to protecting the safety of new Yorkers. Uh Governor, there are pretty significant regional disparities in terms of test positivity in covid, you know, the new york city and the environs are 12% North country, central New York four or 5% western New York 4, 5%. What do you attribute those differences? Like what is driving that difference? Is it as simple as vaccination rates as a vaccine mandates what mask wearing? I cover all the state even now as governor, uh, when I see you’re wearing mask walking down the street outside, they’re not required to, I know that’s a community taking it seriously. I go to other parts of the state. I walk in a building with my mask on and I’m the only one wearing a mask because they’re now saying they’re not required. I need to start looking at the regional differences and having conversations with the leadership in those areas. My original position from day one was to empower the localities to do more because they wanted to. But I always said, but I’m watching closely and if we’re starting to see spikes that are not good for an area, we’re gonna have to take more drastic measures. So, um, I think it’s vaccination and I think it’s mask wearing and there’s more, there’s other parts of our state where There’s far more vaccine has it a disease than other. I mean, I was in a place yesterday, they had 48% vaccination rate in that zip code, 48%. So when you mentioned, you mentioned the possibility of more drastic action. Are you specifically suggesting that maybe you could impose some sort of mask mandate statewide in regions, something like that. Well, we’ve explained this before, but I don’t have the same authority that was in place um when it was when the pandemic first hit, those powers were taken back or returned to the Legislature earlier this summer. However, I could I would I could find ways to make a more strict mask mandate. I’m watching the numbers closely. I’m watching to see whether or not we plateau statewide. We overall, you know, 2.34 is pretty good start doing this quickly. I know what to do. So we have a lot of tools at our disposal. So I think, I think everybody do have to get back to you. Mhm, mm. Right.

North Country maintains state’s highest COVID-19 infection rate

New York’s North Country region has the highest COVID-19 infection rate of any across the state, a position it has held for roughly a month. Video: Watch the governor’s full COVID-19 briefingIn a pandemic briefing Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul displayed Department of Health data showing the region had a seven-day positivity rate of 5.26%. That average has decreased slightly in recent weeks yet remains more than twice the 2.34% statewide rate. “C’mon North Country, you can do better,” Hochul said when showing the data. Regional boundaries, as defined by the state, stretch as far west as Watertown.Franklin and Clinton counties rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in the state for the number of reported COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. Both are reporting roughly 50 cases per capita during the past week. The North Country has approximately 38% of its hospital beds available, about 4% above a seven-day statewide average. Hochul has expressed concern with the area’s transmission rate and Tuesday warned that she could favor additional public safety guidance for any region seeing continued high infection rates. “If we’re starting to see spikes that are not good for an area we’re going to have to take more drastic measures,” Hochul said. “I could find ways to make a more strict mask mandate … I’m watching the numbers closely,” she continued. “We have a lot of tools at our disposal.” Hochul did not specify how she would implement additional public health measures, should she choose to do so.

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. —

New York’s North Country region has the highest COVID-19 infection rate of any across the state, a position it has held for roughly a month.

Video: Watch the governor’s full COVID-19 briefing

In a pandemic briefing Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul displayed Department of Health data showing the region had a seven-day positivity rate of 5.26%. That average has decreased slightly in recent weeks yet remains more than twice the 2.34% statewide rate.

“C’mon North Country, you can do better,” Hochul said when showing the data.

Regional boundaries, as defined by the state, stretch as far west as Watertown.

Franklin and Clinton counties rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in the state for the number of reported COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. Both are reporting roughly 50 cases per capita during the past week.

The North Country has approximately 38% of its hospital beds available, about 4% above a seven-day statewide average.

Hochul has expressed concern with the area’s transmission rate and Tuesday warned that she could favor additional public safety guidance for any region seeing continued high infection rates.

“If we’re starting to see spikes that are not good for an area we’re going to have to take more drastic measures,” Hochul said.

“I could find ways to make a more strict mask mandate … I’m watching the numbers closely,” she continued. “We have a lot of tools at our disposal.”

Hochul did not specify how she would implement additional public health measures, should she choose to do so.