(CNN) - Covid-19 is here to stay.
It's highly unlikely that the United States, let alone the world, will be able to completely eliminate the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
But there will come a day when it's no longer a pandemic, when cases are no longer out of control and hospitals aren't at great risk of overflowing with patients. Many experts predict the spread of coronavirus will look and feel more like seasonal influenza.
What's less clear is how and when that will happen.
"There's not even a measurement to say that something is an epidemic or pandemic. All of this is in the eye of the beholder -- and that's part of the issue," Dr. Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan and acting chair of the US Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, told CNN.
"So, all of this is not based on rules. It's based typically on what you have to do to control the outbreak," Monto said. "What is so different here is that our vaccines are much more effective than what we usually see."
The good news, according to Monto, is the power of vaccines. The bad news comes with the power of the virus to change and evolve.
No one can predict what the future of Covid-19 could look like -- and the emergence of coronavirus variants, like Delta, has shifted the trajectory, he said.
"With the change in transmission patterns, as the variants have emerged -- I call it a parade of variants -- we now see much more extensive transmission and much more uniform spread globally. This makes declaring the end of the pandemic more difficult," Monto said. "Because the whole pattern of spread has changed, and there may still be pockets that really haven't gone through the kind of waves that the rest of the world has gone through."
Monto and other public health leaders anticipate that in the future, the world could track the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in ways similar to how the seasonal flu is monitored.
"We have no idea whether we're going to see that kind of seasonal pattern with SARS-CoV-2, but it does remind us that most of our respiratory viruses start behaving as seasonal events," Monto said.
"There is the precedent for a very seasonal pattern for some of the coronaviruses that have been infecting people," he added. "Whether SARS-CoV-2 starts to behave like that, we don't know, but at least it gives us one scenario that it might start to behave like that."
As Monto put it, we have to "wait and see and hold our breath" to unlock what an endemic phase of the coronavirus might look like.
Endemic means that a disease has a constant presence in a population -- but it's not affecting an alarmingly large number of people as typically seen in a pandemic. Even in early 2020, as the pandemic was ramping up, officials at the World Health Organization predicted that the novel coronavirus "may become another endemic virus in our communities" and never go away.
"When you think about pandemics, you're in the pandemic phase and then you have a deceleration phase, then you have a control phase, then hopefully you'll have elimination and maybe eradication," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the US Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor & Pensions in a hearing on Thursday.
"What we hope to get it at is such a low level that even though it isn't completely eliminated, it doesn't have a major impact on public health or on the way we run our lives," Fauci said. "So, if we get more people vaccinated globally and more people vaccinated now, hopefully within a reasonable period of time we will get to that point where it might occasionally be up and down in the background but it won't dominate us the way it's doing right now."
While the US Department of Health and Human Services last month renewed its determination that a public health emergency still exists in the United States due to Covid-19, federal health officials already are thinking about how to measure the end of the pandemic and how to continue to track the coronavirus once it becomes endemic.
To transition from pandemic to endemic, the nation has to build up immunity to the coronavirus -- which means many more people need to get vaccinated, Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at Boston College, told CNN.
With some Americans still refusing to get their Covid-19 shots and some refusing to wear masks, the transition could take more time.
Currently, about 58% of the total US population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
"We have to get somewhere well north of 80%, possibly even well north of 90% of the population with immunity either through having had infection or through having had vaccinations," said Landrigan, who worked at the CDC for 15 years.
To control the spread of the measles virus in the US population, for instance, "we had to get the immunity rate up above 95%, and even then, we've had sporadic outbreaks. These outbreaks typically occur when you have a cluster of people in a particular place who are not immunized and all of a sudden the virus gets introduced because a traveler has come in with the virus -- and bang, you've got 20 cases of measles in some town," Landrigan said. "But that's not an epidemic. It's an outbreak against a background of almost no cases or scattered endemic cases."
For now, the CDC says there's much work to do to control the current spread of the virus.
"We know there is still much to be done to stop the spread of COVID-19 and end the pandemic. We are still seeing far too many new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The daily average of cases is over 70,000 a day with more than 1,000 deaths. This is why we're encouraging everyone 5 years and older get vaccinated to protect them against COVID-19," CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund wrote in an email to CNN last week.
"As we look forward to the fall and winter, it's important to continue practicing prevention measures that we know work -- vaccinating, wearing a mask in public, indoor settings, staying home when you are sick, and washing your hands frequently."
Health officials are familiar with the work needed to improve vaccination rates.
The CDC recommends that almost everyone 6 months and older should get a flu shot every year. But during the 2019-2020 flu season, only about half of those people -- 51.8% -- did, according to the CDC. The agency estimates that flu has caused about 12,000 to 52,000 deaths each year between 2010 and 2020.
The coronavirus has killed more than 750,000 people in the United States so far.
The battle to corral coronavirus every year may look very much like the annual fight against the flu.
"We've been thinking a lot about what an endemic phase looks like and the data that we're needing to collect during that phase. Certainly right now we are collecting data on cases, hospitalizations, deaths," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Thursday's Senate committee hearing. "The question is: What are going to be our best metrics moving forward? And probably modeling it on flu."
The CDC collaborates with health departments, laboratories, hospitals and health care providers to track diagnosed flu cases, determine what influenza viruses are circulating and measure the impact those viruses are having on hospitalizations and deaths.
One idea is that when the coronavirus becomes endemic, a similar tracking system could be used to monitor the pathogen.
"We could handle the cases just like we do with seasonal flu -- where we're able to say we know we're going to see a number of cases in the winter season, and we can have the right staffing, we can have the right supplies ready and we're ready to handle it, as opposed to the surges that we've been dealing with here," Dr. Stephen Parodi, national infectious disease leader for Kaiser Permanente, told CNN.
"I'm still on phone calls talking about what's our ICU bed capacity? What's our supplies chains that we need to provide care to patients? Do we have enough medication? Do we have enough monoclonal antibodies?" Parodi said. "We have a lot more work to still do to get to where we want to be, and I think we're going to see this transition over year 2022. But for some locales, where there's less immunity, it's going to be a longer run."
Even flu is unpredictable, and doctors have seen a lot of flu over the years.
"We know there are going to be cases," Monto said. "With the flu, we've had experience with flu pandemics before. So we know typically the way they behave. This has been an evolving situation with a totally novel pathogen."
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Arkansas went up Sunday. Active cases, though, are down after two days of increasing.
The number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Arkansas went up by 10 in the last 24 hours, rising to 290. Of the hospitalized patients, 73 are on ventilators, a decrease of three.
The Arkansas Department of Health released data Sunday showing that active cases went down, falling by 52 to 4,580.
Health officials say there were 266 new cases of the virus, moving the states total so far during the pandemic to 516,245.
Health officials also reported 14 more deaths from the virus, raising the states total to 8,497. The number of total deaths in Arkansas is now greater than the population of Montgomery County, which has a population of 8,484.
ADH reported 6,627 new COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Arkansas in the last 24 hours. Fully immunized Arkansans increased to 1,409,098 while Arkansans partially vaccinated are at 291,894.
We continue to see a lower level of COVID throughout Arkansas today compared the past few months, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a Tweet. Our vaccine efforts are critical to preventing another increase in cases.
NEW MEXICO(KRQE) Monday will be another nice day after a gorgeous weekend. Temperatures are cool as usual this morning, but daytime temperatures will warm back into the 70s and 80s, with near-record daily highs. Rounds of high clouds will move in throughout the day, and winds will be breezy around the higher terrain. WSW winds around 5-15 mph are expected for most. However, the high terrain will see winds up to around 20-25 mph with some occasional gusts over 30 mph.
The next storm will move into the southwest Tuesday through Thursday. Moisture will arrive in the form of cloud cover Monday and Tuesday, with a slight chance for a stray shower in the northern and western high terrain Tuesday afternoon through the night. The state will likely stay completely dry, due to lack of moisture. Winds will be gusty on Wednesday and breezy on Thursday. Temperatures will cool down throughout the week behind the cold front.
News 12 Staff
Nov 08, 2021, 11:37am
Updated on: Nov 08, 2021, 11:53am
Infections in New York are back on the rise.
The latest numbers released from Gov. Kathy Hochul's office Sunday show the positivity rate at 2.65%. That's up from Friday. Across the state, 25 new deaths were reported.
In the Mid-Hudson region, the infection rate was up slightly to 1.85%. Two deaths were reported in our area - both in Dutchess County.
Meanwhile, the CDC says 80% of all Americans ages 18 and up have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 70% of adults are fully vaccinated.
In New York, that number is slightly higher. The CDC reports that more than 79% of New Yorkers 18 and over are fully vaccinated.
Any C-suite executive looking to lure workers back into the office has likely spent more time thinking about indoor air quality and ventilation over the past year-and-a-half than at any other point in their pre-pandemic life.
That's because healthy buildings have become the latest enticement to bring employees back into the office. As people slowly return to in-person work, they're naturally concerned with how safe they'll be. Companies continue to reassure workers that desks, computer keyboards, elevator buttons, and every other public surface are being sufficiently sanitized.
But now they're also paying closer attention to how healthy the air is inside those buildings and the impact this can have not only on preventing the spread of Covid-19 and other respiratory ailments but how air quality can affect cognitive function.
"I don't think business people realize the power of buildings to not only keep people safe from disease but to lead to better performance," said Joseph G. Allen, Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health associate professor and director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings program at the CNBC Workforce Executive Council summit on Wednesday. "Greater ventilation leads to significantly better cognitive function performance of employees. It's good for worker health and productivity."
Allen said the increased interest in the air quality inside buildings stems from a better understanding of how Covid-19 spreads. Cleaning surfaces and obeying the six-foot distancing rule made sense when the belief was that the virus spread through droplets emitted when we coughed or sneezed and these droplets couldn't travel further than six feet.
The reality is that Covid-19 is spread through respiratory aerosols that travel well beyond six feet, Allen said. "When we're talking, coughing, sneezing, or just breathing, we're constantly emitting respiratory aerosols of different sizes," he added. "If we're infected, those particles carry the virus and can travel across any room and stay aloft for hours. The droplet dogma is over."
An under-ventilated room or building means these respiratory aerosols will build up and can infect someone well beyond that six-foot distance. "All of the big outbreaks we've seen have the same characteristics," Allen said. "Time indoors in an under-ventilated space. It doesn't matter if it's spin class, choir practice, or a restaurant. It's the same fundamental underlying factors that are driving transmission."
Businesses can take action to counter this, Allen said. "Just like we've made great gains in public health around sanitation, water quality, and food safety, indoor air quality is going to be part of that conversation moving forward," he said.
Employees wear protective masks at a JLL office in Menlo Park, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The first step is for building managers to determine what systems are in place and if they are operating as they were designed to do. "It seems obvious, but oftentimes we put equipment in and then leave it for 10 or 15 years and never give it a tune-up like we do our cars," Allen explained.
Maximizing the amount of outdoor air coming into the building is another step to take. And finally, Allen said air filters should be upgraded to what's called MERV 13. (MERV stands for minimum efficiency reporting value.) He explained that a typical building has a MERV 8 filter that captures about 20% of airborne particles. A MERV 13 filter will capture closer to 90% or more of those particles.
Not only will these higher-grade filters improve air quality to help reduce the spread of viruses, but they can also help workers improve their performance.
Allen's team at Harvard recently released a study looking at workers from around the world for a year. Each had air quality sensors placed at their desks. A custom-designed smartphone app enabled these workers to take brief cognitive function tests. Allen found that the people with better air ventilation and lower particle levels performed significantly better on these tests than people working in areas where the air quality is worse.
"The beautiful thing about all this is that healthy building strategies help protect against infectious disease, but they're also good for worker health, productivity, and performance," Allen said.
In his 2020 book, "Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity" which he co-wrote with Harvard Business School lecturer John D. Macomber, Allen said they show how better air quality and ventilation can lead to bottom-line gains for businesses. His Harvard research and financial simulations found that the benefits of higher ventilation alone are estimated to be between $6,500 and $7,500 per person, per year. In an April 2020 Harvard Business Review article that he co-authored with Macomber, Allen cites researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimating that improving indoor air quality in offices could add as much as $20 billion annually to the U.S. economy.
"Since the late 1970s, in response to the global energy crisis, we started to tighten up our buildings and in the process choked off the air supply in an effort to conserve energy," Allen said. In doing so, we ushered in the sick building era.
"It's no surprise that we have high levels of indoor air pollution and sick buildings where people can't concentrate in conference rooms and constantly feel sleepy at work," he said.
And contrary to what many think, it's not just new, modern buildings that can be health-focused. "Any building can be a healthy building and it's not hard to do and it's not that expensive," he added. "In fact, I would argue that healthy buildings aren't expensive. Sick buildings are what's expensive."
To join the CNBC Workforce Executive Council, apply at cnbccouncils.com/wec.
NEW YORK New York City is giving children a chance to get the COVID-19 vaccine while at school as vaccine clinics open at city schools all week.
As long as a students parent gives permission, children ages 5 to 11 can get inoculated.
From Monday, Nov. 8 through Monday, Nov. 15, vaccination sites will pop up in every city school that serves kids ages 5 to 11, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week.
Over the course of a week, 1,070 school vaccination sites will be set up, with over 200 school sites open each day.
No appointments will be necessary.
Those interested in getting their child vaccinated at their school can find the schedule at Schools.NYC.GOV/COVID19.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams made headlines over the weekend, saying he is hopeful students will be able to stop wearing masks in school by the end of the year.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter, however, said masks are a part of our layered approach to safety, especially with some students unvaccinated and under the age of five. Were still leaning into what the science is telling us.
Last weeks panel of doctors and experts from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on the Pfizer dose for school-age children, making way for a hopeful new era in the 20-month long pandemic.
Side effects have been mild in the kids trials, and to entice families during the holiday season, the city is offering $100 to each child who gets vaccinated at city-run sites.
Clayton County Schools to host Wednesday virtual town hall on COVID-19 The Atlanta Journal Constitution
This week at least 18 more Minnesota schools are expected to offer COVID-19 vaccines to their students.
The effort comes after federal officials last week approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5 to 11 years old an age group in which a lot of new cases of the virus have emerged as children headed back to school this fall.
The schools working with the Minnesota Department of Health to offer vaccinations this week include locations in Duluth, Minneapolis and Mankato. Other districts, including St. Paul Public Schools, will host vaccine clinics in partnership with local public health offices.
At an M Health Fairview vaccine clinic at Cityview Community School in north Minneapolis last week, Dr. Emily Borman-Shoap said offering shots in places kids would normally go like schools makes it easier for parents to get their kids immunized.
We know that some families may face more challenges accessing health care easily, or may not have a trusted provider, she said. So partnering with a school thats a trusted place it really helps our communities make sure that everybody has access to this protection on the first day we could get it.
Parents and families gather in the lobby of Cityview Community School in Minneapolis for a vaccine clinic for kids on Thursday.
Evan Frost | MPR News
Borman-Shoap said the vaccines are very safe and effective, after being studied on thousands of kids already.
My job as a pediatrician is to give you the best advice on how to keep your kids safe and healthy. So I'd never advise something that I thought would be harmful for them, she said.
Brett Percy was at Cityview Community School with his son Joseph, 10. Percy said his family is seeking some normalcy.
Were basically here to do our part to get over the pandemic, move on with life, he said.
"I just wanted not to get COVID, said Joseph.
Parents must consent to having their children immunized in school. In some cases, parents may be required to be present, too.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm speaks outside the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul on Sunday. The museum was hosting a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for kids ages 5 to 11.
Andrew Krueger | MPR News
This week, state officials say they expect to have about 255,000 first vaccine doses for kids 5 to 11 at locations around the state enough to immunize about half the kids in that age group.
"This is not like the beginning with the adult vaccinations, where there just wasn't enough supply. It's just going to get easier and easier as more and more sites have the vaccine," State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Sunday outside a kids' COVID vaccine clinic taking place at the Minnesota Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul.
Speaking alongside Malcolm outside the children's museum, Gov. Tim Walz said community vaccination clinics like that one are another way to get the COVID vaccine to everyone who wants one.
"We want the barriers to be as low as possible. We want them to be as comfortable as possible. And we want them to be as convenient as possible," Walz said. "Parents work during the week. So being able to do it on the weekend ... in such an inviting space is critically important."
Parents can get their kids vaccinated at pharmacies and health care clinics as well.
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By Diane Lee, Public Information Officer, Garrett County Health Department
The Garrett County Health Department, along with Maryland Department of Health are currently making plans for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to 5-11-year-olds.
Garrett County County Public Schools (GCPS) in collaboration with the Garrett County Health Department (GCHD) are offering free COVID-19 vaccination clinics for children 5 -11 years old on Monday, November 15, 2021, at Northern Middle School from 3:00 pm. to 6:00 p.m, and at Southern Middle School on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome. Students must be accompanied by their parents/guardians. For more information contact the Garrett County Health Department by calling 301-334-7777 or contact your childs school nurse.
We look forward to be able to supply this protection against COVID-19 to those who are 5-11 years old, said Dr. Jennifer Corder, Garrett and Allegany County Deputy Health Officer, and Board-Certified Pediatrician. Although we know that this age group is less likely to have an adverse outcome if they get the virus, COVID-19 has resulted in the deaths of more than 700 children in the USA since the start of the pandemic. If we can prevent anymore deaths to any age group, then thats what we should do!
At the end of September, Pfizer announced the results of a Phase 2/3 trial in which more than 2,000 children age 5-11 years old received a two-dose regimen of the COVID-19 vaccine equivalent to one third of an adult dose. The results of the trial showed:
As with any vaccine, there are safeguards in place to keep track of any possible health problems associated with the COVID-19 vaccine, said Dr. Corder. One of those safeguards, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) accepts and analyzes reports of possible health issues also called adverse events after a vaccination is administered.
It is helpful to look at the history of flu-related pediatric deaths reported to the CDC in comparison to the more than 700 COVID-19 pediatric related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Corder said. From the 2004-2005 season through the 2019-2020 season, flu-related deaths in children reported during regular flu seasons have ranged from 37 to 199 deaths. (During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, 358 pediatric flu-related deaths were reported to CDC from April 2009 to September 2010).
Any death, of any age person, from any disease is too many, Dr. Corder said, so its important that we get as many people as possible in all eligible age ranges vaccinated against COVID-19, and against the flu. We owe it to ourselves, to our families, to our friends, and even to strangers. Its one thing we can do to reduce the spread of these diseases and the deaths.
Once fully vaccinated, children will not have to be quarantined from school after an exposure to a case of COVID unless they have symptoms. This is an opportunity to keep these children in school and relieve many of the challenges facing children, families, and teachers due to children being quarantined.
What to Know
New York City public schools kick off a series of in-school vaccination drives Monday, creating pop-ups in more than 1,000 buildings that serve students aged 5 to 11 as part of a week-long effort to dose the newly eligible with Pfizer's shot.
That amounts to roughly 200 school sites a day between now and next Monday.
Parents can already take their kids to get the Pfizer shot at city-run vaccine sites, where their kids are eligible for $100 incentives, pharmacies and private providers following the CDC's recommendation that the lower-dose shots be administered to younger children last week. Appointments are recommended but not required.
Those kids who plan to take advantage of the in-school program, which runs through next Monday, need to have a parent or guardian with them to get their COVID vaccinations, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said. Verbal consent can also be provided by phone, though some schools may require in-person supervision.
The idea is to encourage parents to get their kids vaccinated by whichever avenue they deem most comfortable, de Blasio has said. Pediatricians, schools, community sites and other programs are just some of the options.
In announcing the school program last week, the mayor said the city wanted to offer that choice because it might be the most convenient one for some parents.
Children will have to have a parent or guardian, or a designated adult, with them at the time of the shot. Verbal consent can also be provided by phone. Click here to find the consent form, list of school vaccine sites and when they open.
When asked Friday whether he's worried that kids will only get one dose of the two-dose series due to the nature of the pop-up vaccine sites, de Blasio said he's confident parents will follow up on the second shot.
"We saw typically parents choosing to go to other places they get health care rather than do it in the school," de Blasio told WNYC. "So, we're now doing one day per school for the five to 11-year-olds. If we get a really big pickup on that, we certainly can do more and we certainly can come back on the second dose."
Kids who get the COVID vaccine should be able to go maskless in school, says Dr. Alok Patel. "I can't wait to see those kids with their bright, smiling shining faces again," Patel says. He answers all our questions about the COVID vaccines being approved for administration to children.
Since federal health authorities allowed the vaccine for children aged 12-17 over the summer, the mayor said nearly 4 out of 5 of kids in the group across the five boroughs have gotten vaccinated with parental consent.
"The fact that we have gotten parents now to agree to that level, 78% for the 12 to 17-year-olds is great. I think we even have a higher number, ultimately with five to 11, but if we need to do more in schools, if it's working, of course we will," he added.
Once the majority of children are vaccinated, the next question still on parents' minds is when can kids stop wearing masks in school?
Both de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams say they want kids to be able to take their masks off because it's important for kids to socialize --- but they're going to wait until health experts are certain that kids will be safe.
Fresh on the heels of his mayoral victory last week, Adams told CNN's Dana Bash that he would like to see the mask mandate for the city's youngest residents dropped if scientific data supports it.
"If we can find a safe way to do it, I look forward to getting rid of the masks, but it must be done with the science. We're not going back to turning out city and closing it down," he said Sunday on "State of the Union."
Mayor de Blasio said he's the vaccination rates give him hope that mask requirements can one day be part of pandemic history, but the upcoming colder months are crucial and New Yorkers cannot underestimate the coronavirus.
The CDC director's endorsement of the vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 came hours after an advisory panel unanimously recommended its use.
"Until we're really sure, we have to expect the unexpected, he said. "I want those masks off one day, but we cannot tell you yet here's the exact day or here's the exact standard we're holding because we still need more information."
In other parts of the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul said more than 350 school districts have already indicated they plan to host vaccine events for kids aged 5-11. The Biden administration also plans to send a letter to U.S. elementary schools in the next week asking them to host clinics. The Education Department is also urging schools to host town halls and webinars at which parents can talk to doctors about the vaccine.
For now, the governor expects to rely mainly on pediatric offices to carry out the bulk of the vaccinations for kids aged 5-11, given the trust and relationship factor with individual families and their larger communities. She says she could easily scale up mass vaccination sites again, but doesn't expect that demand to be there.
"I think that most parents are going to feel most comfortable in a place where they know the person administering that shot, especially for the younger kids ... so we are going to let the pediatrician offices handle this for now," Hochul said, adding that she does anticipate schools to be a significant part of the equation as well.
U.S. health advisers have endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for young children. The vote Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration panel moves the nation closer to vaccinating children ages 5 to 11. NBC New York's Anjali Hemphill reports.
Asked whether she expects vaccine mandates to become part of the program for eligible-age students, Hochul echoed sentiments she made since before she was sworn in as governor: "That is a possibility. It is on the table."
"I want to empower parents and the schools to do the right thing first, but if we are not seeing adequate compliance or we start seeing the numbers starting to go up this is what we are monitoring closely if I start seeing the infection rate going up, hospitalization rates going up, more children being affected, I will have no choice," Hochul said. "But right now, the numbers are good. Parents will hopefully do the right thing and I will keep an eye out on that situation."
The mandate question has become a topic of consideration for the Fall 2022 school year, Hochul has said, but she reiterated she wouldn't shy away from making a move sooner if needed. She hopes it doesn't come to that. Currently, there are no COVID vaccination mandates for students in New York's public schools.
Mayor de Blasio has said he opposes such mandates for kids at this point.
Not sure how the process works? Check out our handy tri-state vaccine site finder and FAQs here
New York City and New Jersey Vaccine Providers
Click on each provider to find more information on scheduling appointments for the COVID-19 Vaccine.
