Jan. 1 (UPI) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that the state would be requiring booster vaccines for college students attending schools within the State University of New York and City University of New York systems.
Hochul, who made the announcement during a televised New Year’s Eve press conference, said the booster requirements are necessary because of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to spread of the Omicron variant.
“Let’s talk about kids on campus. We know what happened last time when so many universities, the SUNY schools and the privates, had to close during the pandemic,” Hochul said.
The mandate, which takes effect Jan. 15, applies to all students when they become eligible for the booster shot.
Students who received their first two doses more than six months ago are already eligible to receive their booster shots, and those who received their first dose within the last six months will be required to get the booster shot when they become eligible, Hochul said.
“We are asking all schools to ensure students, before they return, are boosted. They are required to be vaccinated. Now we are putting on an additional requirement — in order to return to your college campus, you have to be boosted,” Hochul said.
She added that faculty will now also be required to be vaccinated, which was not previously required.
“When a community college shuts down, or a SUNY school or a private school shuts down, that is devastating to the local economy,” Hochul said. “We could avoid this.”
Masks will remain mandatory in public spaces indoors, and students will be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test when returning to campus. There also will be random sampling through the semester.
“We’ve been saying for a long time that we’re going to experience a very serious winter surge,” Hochul said. “We are heading into a new season, a new year. Kids are coming back to school. Our hospitals are overstretched. So we wanted to amplify the policies that have been working thus far.”
Hochul also extended the state’s “Vax or Mask” mandate for businesses through Feb. 1 and said she asked the Biden administration to let the state require that nursing home visitors show proof of vaccination after thousands of nursing home residents died during the outbreak of the pandemic last year.
New York had 76,555 positive cases Friday with 7,919 hospitalizations — 3,925 of which are in New York City, Hochul said. There were 80 deaths caused by COVID-19 on Thursday.
“We are seeing more cases, but not the correlating number of deaths, which is a good number,” Hochul said. “The sooner we start the downward trend of this spike, I’m sure the deaths will also decline.”
Hochul revealed that 98% of adults in New York State have received their first dose with 83% having received their second dose.
“This virus breaks through a first dose, and even a second dose, which is why we’re going to focus on boosters,” Hochul said.
