NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced the state is making more COVID-19 data available to the public in an effort to be more transparent about coronavirus numbers.
The state is launching a tracking site with new data sets including a daily schools report card, nursing home fatalities, vaccine completion by county, and hospitalizations by gender and ZIP code.
The move comes as the governor also signed two bills into law to increase government transparency.
The bills require government agencies to make available meeting agendas and documents 24 hours before they are discussed and will mandate the Metropolitan Transportation Authority expand access to public records and data.
On the COVID front, the governor announced percentages are stabilizing with the state reporting a 2.58% positivity.
Hochul singled out New York City, which has a 1.29% positivity rate, with having done an "extraordinary job" of driving down numbers with vaccine mandates and other COVID safety measures.
"We are in a holding pattern in a sense, that's a good place to be I believe rather than heading upwards," Hochul said. "We are heading into a vulnerable time and we are not getting complacent and we are hopeful this is the last Halloween when parents have to worry about whether their children should go trick-or-treating or whether they go to the mall starting in November and December and their children are with Santa Claus and they wonder if Santa Claus is vaccinated."
Hochul said hospitalization numbers are also flattening across the state, cautiously stating that "we're approaching the other end of the wave."
As the federal government inches closer to approving Pfizer's COVID vaccine for those between the ages of 5 and 11, Hochul said the state is turning its attention to preparing to get those shots into the arms of 1.5 million more children in New York.
The governor will be meeting with the New York Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to work with the group on getting supplies and additional staffing for this next vaccination effort.
She expects to utilize pharmacies, urgent care facilities and schools to get this next age group vaccinated.
"Schools I believe are the answer," Hochul said. "We are aggressively right now connecting schools to provider partners and other community organizations, outreach, educational materials, it's all out there right now. We are getting ready for this, but I want the schools to know that we are here to help. We're already in conversation with school superintendents letting them know we want this offered in schools or at least in the immediate vicinity of schools."
The governor also said the state wants to be a leader in addressing and researching so-called COVID longhaulers. So far, 600 health care providers have signed up for an upcoming webinar hosted by the Department of Health that aims to raise awareness about symptoms and treatments of those suffering the long-term effects of COVID infections.
The state will also seeking federal funding to set up research entities to study longhauler cases.