ALBANY — New York will cut down its 10-day COVID-19 isolation guidance for fully vaccinated people in the “critical workforce” – nursing homes, restaurants, grocery stores – permitting them to go back to work in five days if they’re asymptomatic or have resolved their symptoms.
The guidance comes as the Empire State broke its daily record with more than 44,000 new COVID cases reported.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday the state will issue the new return-to-work guidance allowing fully inoculated individuals who have tested positive for the virus to go back to work five days later so long as they’re asymptomatic, have had no fever for 72 hours, do not have a cough and aren’t on medication for the disease.
“We want to make sure that our critical workforce we’ve relied on from the beginning – and my heart goes out to them, we’re with filled with gratitude – that our workers can get back [to work],” said Hochul during a remote briefing from Albany.
“That includes our health care, elder care, home health care, sanitation, grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants – you know who you are…you’re the ones that got us through the first many months of anxiety,” she said, adding those working in the transportation industry will also be covered by the adjusted rule.
Employees in the “essential” job categories must wear a mask when they return to work.
The state’s list includes ten categories listing those who work in healthcare settings – such as doctors, nurses and veterinarians – plus law enforcement areas such as cops, correctional facilities and fire houses as well as other public and private sector industries – teachers, those who work in airports, on trains or in telecommunications.
“We need you again, we need you to be able to go to work,” she added, noting it’s a way to stave off workforce shortages amid a rapid spike in positive cases as the highly contagious Omicron variant rages.
“Given the very high case counts during the current COVID-19 surge in NYS, the Department expects a large number of mild or asymptomatic cases in fully vaccinated persons,” reads the guidance issued by the state Department of Health justifying the change.
“Imposing a full 10 days of isolation in these circumstances has the potential to substantially impact critical services including healthcare, a sector already experiencing severe staffing shortages.
Hochul said the state is taking a cue from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently revised its 10-day isolation rule for those working in health care facilities.
“We’re always trying to adapt to changing data as we receive it and process it. So, this is a new announcement from the CDC,” she said, although the state’s new rules go further than the federal guidance.
The CDC on Thursday announced new recommendations that reduced isolation time for health care workers from 10 to seven days, but also noted the “isolation time can be cut further if there are staffing shortages.”
But the rule change drew ire from New York’s largest nursing union – repping over 42,000 members.
“This guidance is inconsistent with proven science, vague, and doesn’t provide definitions or explain standards at a time when decision-making for healthcare systems is critical,” said Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association.
“Healthcare worker infection rates are not being tracked and there’s no substantial evidence behind the CDC changing this guidance. But there is a health care staffing crisis the CDC cited as the justification for it.”
“Not prioritizing the safety and retention of healthcare workers from the beginning of the pandemic is what exacerbated staffing shortages.
That’s job [number one] in pandemic response,” she added, reflecting back on the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 when health care workers didn’t have proper masks, personal protective equipment and some even work garbage bags as gowns thanks to rampant shortages.
New York tallied 44,431 new individuals statewide who tested positive for the virus, up from the previous day’s 38,835 case count.
The new total is derived from the results of 359,191 test results received – another record – according to Hochul.
Daily hospitalizations are also continuing to climb steadily, with 4,744 individuals in beds across the state – an increase of 210 people compared to the day before.
New stats from the state Health Department released Friday show 25 hospitals – all located outside the five boroughs – must pause nonessential elective surgeries for two weeks, as they’ve hit the qualifying 10 percent or less bed capacity threshold.
It’s a slight improvement compared to data from the week prior, when 28 hospitals were on the list.
Sixty-nine New Yorkers died from the virus.
Hochul also said each of the five boroughs will get a new subway station testing location starting next week, an update to the plan previously announced with the MTA to make testing more accessible to city denizens.
Another 13 new state-run testing sites are slated to open next Wednesday, Dec. 29 to handle the surge in positive cases. Walk-in and appointment-based PCR and rapid antigen and PCR tests will be available.
There will be one new site opened per borough:
- Manhattan: Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on 163 West 125th St. open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Staten Island: Central Family Life Center on 59 Wright St, open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Bronx: Concourse Village Community Center at 777 Concourse Village East open from Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Brooklyn: Kings Plaza Mall at 5100 Kings Plaza, open from Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Queens: York College Performing Arts Center at 94-45 Guy R Brewer Boulevard, open Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Meanwhile Hochul announced that Christmas came early for some individuals.
She granted pardons to nine people and commuted the sentence of one other.
Roger Cole, 55, was originally sentenced to 125 years to life behind bars, convicted in both 1989 and 1992 of five counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree and one count each for criminal sale of a firearm and possession.
He’s already served 30 years and upon release he’ll go to live with family in Jamaica.
The governor also said her office is creating an advisory panel to help with future clemency applications.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo – who resigned in disgrace in Aug. following the release of state Attorney General Letitia James’ bombshell sexual harassment report – issued 41 clemenecies out of 16,000 applications during his ten years in office.
“Hochul didn’t grant a single clemency to an incarcerated woman, and her bare minimum action means that thousands of elders continue to needlessly languish behind bars,” a critical Jose Saldana, Director of the advocacy group Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said in a statement.
“Instead of talking about what she will do, we call on her to take real action now and moving forward by granting far more clemencies to incarcerated New Yorkers frequently, inclusively, and transparently.”
