NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced a "New York State Citizen Public Health Training Program"—free online training that New Yorkers can take to help them prepare for the next public health emergency after the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo said Cornell University has developed a curriculum for New York residents to be trained about public health emergencies.
The governor said it's an eight-session, 16-hour curriculum. The courses are online and free. People can register online at ny.gov/citizenpublichealth.
The curriculum includes 8 hours of self-paced content, "where you can go online and do it at your leisure, your pace," Cuomo said.
There are also 8 hours of interactive sessions, "where you hear Cornell professors, SUNY professors, national experts giving the most recent up-to-date best information," the governor said.
There will then be exams or "assessments." If someone passes the assessment, he or she will get a "certified training program completion" from Cornell and from the state Department of Health that says that person has been trained as a Citizen Public Health Leader. They could then be a part of a "volunteer army" in a future health emergency, the governor said.
"In the event of another health care emergency, this would be a body of people who could volunteer to help in their community," Cuomo said. "I believe we will ultimately attract thousands of people to do this."
The governor called the program "a first of its kind in the nation."
"What this is is a state-of-the-art public health training program for citizens, so they are informed, they are educated and they are trained for the next one—for the end of COVID and for the next one, whatever that may be," the governor said. "And the time to get that information and training is now."
