NY schools stop reporting COVID cases on state website. What there is to know
Before President Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over” on CBS on Sunday, New York recently stopped requiring schools to report cases and lifted most of the remaining mask mandates meant to curb outbreaks.
Yet despite officials pushing for a post-pandemic perspective, New York’s COVID-19 death toll has continued to rise – adding nearly 350 fatalities so far in September. And each life lost offered a stark reminder that the coronavirus is still causing untold pain and suffering across the state and the nation.
Meanwhile, the USA TODAY Network has gathered the following details on recent COVID-19 policy shifts in New York City as the state navigates a cautiously optimistic transition to life with the virus amid the continued threat of a resurgence this fall and winter.
End of NY Schools COVID Reports
In late August, state health officials sent letters to educators detailing COVID-19 policies for the current school year, including easing quarantine and testing mandates.
The letter also said schools would no longer be required to report positive COVID-19 test results among students and teachers to state officials on a daily basis.
Daily test results were also posted on a now-disabled website called the School COVID-19 Report Card, which allowed parents to monitor cases at each school.
State health officials, including Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, have cited increasing access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments as the main reason for the relaxation of case precautions. pandemic and case reporting requirements in schools, the letter says.
The COVID-19 report card for schools began under former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Public health experts have backed the measure, citing the need to disclose key COVID-19 data to help curb outbreaks and allow people to make informed decisions about their personal safety.
Although the state ended its requirement, New York City public schools currently continue to track and report COVID-19 cases by school on a website through schools.nyc.gov.
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What is the COVID data reported by NY?
The decision to stop reporting COVID-19 cases in schools came amid growing use of home testing, including millions of kits the state has provided to schools across the state.
While some counties have attempted to track and report home testing usage, most results go unreported in part due to a lack of statewide policy.
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Many other COVID-19 statistics — such as those related to hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccinations — are publicly posted on a state Department of Health website via health.ny.gov.
Earlier in the pandemic, state officials were slow to release much of this COVID-19 data, often releasing it under pressure from health experts and the media, including the USA TODAY Network. .
As a result, the reporting of COVID-19 data has partly fueled broad revelations, such as the government’s inability to address outbreaks in nursing homes and racial disparities throughout the pandemic response. .
Since the report card website was shut down, health officials said last week that there were “no immediate plans to modify other COVID-19 data trackers” on the school’s website. ‘State.
Health officials “continually evaluate the usefulness and presentation of the data and will continue to update and modify our data pages as necessary,” they added in a statement.
One of the statistics missing from the state’s website, however, is the number of New Yorkers receiving the new COVID-19 bivalent vaccine booster that targets the original virus and the omicron strain. Instead, the state reports the total number and percentage of eligible people who received a booster or extra dose during the pandemic.
Last week, state health officials told the USA TODAY Network that approximately 75,000 doses of the new booster were received by New Yorkers, excluding New York City, between the 7th and the September 11th. New York suppliers, excluding New York, had ordered approximately 719,000 doses overall at the time.
When did New York end its COVID emergency?
Governor Kathy Hochul allowed her COVID-19 disaster emergency declaration to expire on Sept. 12, citing in part the lull in cases and hospitalizations in recent months.
Initially, Hochul declared a state of emergency in late November when the original omicron variant appeared. The executive order gave Hochul broad authority to respond to the pandemic, including vaccine testing and logistics.
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The order also allowed the Hochul administration to waive requirements for the state comptroller’s office to review and approve state purchase contracts.
Many Republican lawmakers criticized Hochul for extending the emergency order as it eased numerous pandemic restrictions earlier this year.
The pushback has intensified in recent weeks amid bipartisan questions over New York paying $637 million for COVID-19 test kits as omicron raged last winter. The tests were carried out by a New Jersey-based company, Digital Gadgets, owned by a family that has donated nearly $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, as first reported by The Times Union.
U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, R-Long Island, is running against Hochul in the November gubernatorial election and was among those who last week called for state and federal investigations into the deal, citing Times Union reporting that New York paid 45% more per test than California around the same time.
Hochul’s “campaign donor was the middleman in the deal, but there was no need for a middleman with a massively increased cost,” Zeldin wrote on Twitter.
Hochul’s administration defended the deal as necessary to fight omicron, noting in part that New York bought tests before other states and had strict requirements to deliver the kits before classes resume in January. .
How many New Yorkers are dying from COVID?
Previously, former Governor Cuomo ended a previous COVID-19 emergency declaration in June 2021, as fireworks (costing taxpayers from $4,500 in Utica to $44,500 in New York) marked the milestone of vaccinating 70% of New York adults.
This premature return to normal in New York and nationwide proved to be fleeting, as two months later the rise of the delta variant triggered a further increase in cases last fall before the omicron did. settles in early December.
Now New York has spent much of 2022 navigating the uncertain ebb and flow of the omicron strain, while more than 11,700 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 so far this year, according to federal data. The death toll since August 1 alone is over 1,100, underscoring the lingering risks.
Overall, COVID-19 has killed more than 74,000 New Yorkers since the pandemic began in 2020, according to federal data.
