Gov. Hochul details North Country school COVID tests and more

PLATTSBURGH | As Gov. Kathy Hochul urged North Country residents to get vaccinated, she commended local health and municipal efforts while detailing the ramped-up efforts for voluntary COVID-19 testing at area schools in the coming weeks. During a Dec. 29 pop-up vaccination site at Clinton Community College, Gov. Hochul met with area residents seeking first, second and booster doses of the vaccine, while detailing the state's current efforts to combat the virus and its variants. After commending visits with Assemblyman Billy Jones and City of Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest, Hochul applauded health care workers and local leaders for their advocacy, dedication and community work, including North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital President Michelle LeBeau. "I wanted to come by here because there's such an incredible feeling of doing the right thing when you go to a vaccination site. When the state can team up with our local partners right here in places like Plattsburgh and other places where I was earlier today 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 vaccination opportunity for people as we've done right here today is one of those ways that we can work together," Hochul said from the Plattsburgh campus. The pop-up site brought 1,000 vaccination openings and quickly filled with roughly 600 appointments as Hochul urged residents to join the effort with walk-in accessibility. In addition to a recent series of pop-up vaccination efforts, the state also recently provided roughly 75,000 KN-95 masks for distribution in Warren, Essex and Clinton counties alone with more than 35,000 to Clinton County alone. Gov. Hochul said the pandemic response in the North Country has presented unique challenges for testing, access and care. "In areas like this, it's just beautiful. We understand the high quality of life, why people want to live here. But in times like this, access to health care gets more challenging. There aren't a lot of hospitals down the street, there aren't a lot of facilities to go to. So, creating this opportunity with the pop-up site is important, but also for the north country, we are also now talking about how important these enhanced masks are," she said. Following a mid-week conference with more than 500 school superintendents across the state, officials are also continuing to strategize on school impacts of the virus, now sending COVID-19 tests to North Country to assist with faster testing and returns to the classroom. Teachers and local districts, Hochul said, have "been in a very bad place with trying to deal with the struggles of kids being taught remotely. And they did an incredible job. They did the very best they could, and they care about the children in their classrooms. They want to make sure that they're getting the very best education. But also, we saw with the isolation from remote education, how much that took children down to a place of just isolation and loneliness and not having that connection with other classmates and their teachers really took an emotional toll on them. And we're seeing that now. That's why we know we have to make sure that kids end up back in school." That's why, she said, the state is providing more than 22,000 tests for North Country schools. "Let's get them out. There are different strategies you could employ. And one would be when children return to school, make sure they're tested. But also, what has happened before with the quarantine requirements in place. That children are in a classroom, they think they're doing well, one of their classmates test positive, everybody goes home for 10 days. Then you come back for a week. Then another one tests positive and you go home for another 10 days. I saw this happen with people who work with me and it's absolutely maddening." "It is so hard for the parents to get back to work, how they arrange for childcare, and so disruptive for the children and the teachers as well. So, we want to institute fully, a test to stay program. And what that does is it makes sure that you have the tests available to be able to send home with the children. 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." Several local school districts have already notified families of the accessible tests, asking parents and guardians to sign their children up if interested in the voluntary testing, which is aimed at shortening students' potential time out of school. "We ordered 37 million tests to be available. They're not all here yet, but every time a plane flies over, I'm saying, "is that the one that's got my supplies on it" because we're literally getting 500,000 here, another million here, and we're getting them out. So, they'll be there when you need them to make sure your schools have everything they need." Clinton County was also selected as one of six counties in a six-week partnership with the state Department of Health and local health departments to ramp up vaccination efforts and pop-up sites in rural communities. Gov. Hochul thanked the North Country and its leaders "for being such amazing partners, wonderful partners, whether you're not-for-profits, SOMOS, people running this site here today, our elected leaders, our hospital leaders, and our angels on earth - our healthcare workers who are out there every day for us. So thank you very much to everyone." Before ending, the Governor also extended heartfelt appreciation and public accolades for Clinton County Public Health Director John Kanoza, who will be retiring after two decades of local service.

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Gov. Hochul details North Country school COVID tests and more

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