Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Governor Kathy Hochul launched a new COVID-19 preparedness initiative which included providing schools with many COVID testing kits as well as stating masks would not be a requirement in schools based on current guidance.
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"We are now distributing at least, as we speak over 3 million test kits to school districts to make sure that every student and member their staff contests before the first day, we encourage everybody to take advantage of this," said Governor Hochul.
"Right now, we're saying that we don't, currently based on today's numbers, anticipate the need for masks in classrooms, but I'm going to reserve the right to return this policy if the numbers change, the circumstances change and the severity of the illnesses change," Hochul adds.
Dr. Thomas Russo, Chief and Professor of infectious disease at the Jacobs School of Medicine says he supports this decision, "I think that decision is reasonable. We really entered the age of personal responsibility with COVID. At this point, all children of school age should be vaccinated and I suspect that they're parents, for whatever reason, will decide when to wear masks in school, that would also be an option. So at this point, I think the responsibility is shifting to parents to make the best possible decisions for their children."
In terms of new variants, BA.5 seems to be prevalent, but we are on the right track in terms of containing COVID in contrast to other parts of the country.
"We are doing better than most of the rest of the country and most of the rest of New York State, but we still have a fair amount of COVID in Western New York. So certain individuals that are at high risk for getting infected still need to be careful. Hopefully, we won't have a significant increase between now and when school starts. However, there is the BA.5 variant, which is causing a large number of increasing cases elsewhere around the country. We probably have some of that here, but significantly less. So if the situation changes, we do need to be flexible in terms of our public health decisions and doing what's the best we can for everyone involved," said Dr. Russo.
What will make Hochul change her mind about lifting the mandate? Will it be case-related? Dr. Russo thinks it could be a combination of things.
"I think the decision isn't solely based on the number of cases. I think another component of this is if a new variant arise that causes more severe disease that can evade the immunity that we've been building if we have an increased number of hospitalizations and an increased number of people are at risk for severe disease. So I think that decision process, if there is a change of heart will be due to some combination number of cases, the variances circulating, the number of hospitalizations and the proportion of our population that is vulnerable developing severe disease," said Dr. Russo.
COVID-19 is still here and present, but it is important to contact a medical professional if you have any symptoms of COVID at all, prescriptions are now available, "It's critical for people who develop symptoms and maybe COVID to get tested as soon as possible. Not only it's important if you test positive to isolate and protect others, but even more importantly, if you're over 50 or have a significant risk for developing severe disease, there's a new treatment called PAXLOVID that highly efficacious and keeping people out of hospital and having bad outcomes. So, test soon as positive reach out to healthcare providers make sure that this is a good drug for you to take. It needs to be started within five days of the start of symptoms to be efficacious," said Dr. Russo.