New York Governor Kathy Hochul was in Plattsburgh Wednesday afternoon to tour a COVID vaccination site and provide updates on the state’s vaccination efforts.
The Democrat come to Clinton Community College as it hosted a day-long vaccination pod, or point of distribution, for adult first dose vaccination or booster shots.
“When the state can team up with our local partners right here in places like Plattsburgh and other places across the North Country and say that these communities matter and it’s our responsibility to give them all the tools they need to help fight the pandemic and setting up a pop-up, a vaccination opportunity for people as we’ve done right here today is one of those ways that we can work together," Hochul said. "Everyone in this whole health care ecosystem they are owed a tremendous debt of gratitude and I’ll be addressing this whole industry in my State of the State address in a matter of days.”
Governor Hochul said the state will or has delivered over 185-thousand KN-95 masks to the North Country.
“This is the kind you need to wear," the governor said. "We sent over 35,000 to Clinton County alone. So they are here. Make sure you try these on. They are very nicely fitted so make a new fashion statement with your new N95 mask. We also believe in testing. We are working tirelessly to talk to our school superintendents. I was on a call with over 500 of them just yesterday to talk about our strategy to make sure that every child gets back into a classroom.”
One of the strategies to accomplish that, Hochul says, is fully implementing a Test to Stay program across the state.
“What that does is it makes sure that you have the test to be able to send home with the children," Hochul said. "Put them in the backpack if someone tests positive in their class. Let the parents test them the next morning and send them back if it’s negative. Test them again in a few days. We’ll make sure everyone has those protocols. But that’s why we wanted to have 3,000 of those test kits for Clinton County right there and more to come.”
The state has also ordered 37 million test kits for general distribution. Hochul noted there has been an uptick in positive cases statewide as many people got tested in advance of the holidays. She is anticipating a post-holiday spike in coronavirus cases.
“We’re basically preparing for a January surge," the governor added. "We know it’s coming and we’re naive to think it won’t. We just had a few days ago families travel all over the country. We do think there’s going to be a spike in cases that’s going to continue not just in our positive rates but also in hospitalizations. And then we have New Year’s. So let’s prepare for this. What we also want to do is make sure we’re continuing to bring money to the communities to help them with their efforts. Today I’m proud to announce $78 million in federal funds to help communities protect the vulnerable. Communities, non-profits, municipalities can apply for this to stop the further spread through a community development block grant.”
The state is planning to implement the Test to Stay program when students return to school on January 3.
