Hochul: “Unvaccinated New York School Staff Must Get Tested Weekly”

With the arrival of back to school season, Governor Kathy Hochul has announced new policies within the state that school staff need to follow as the fight against coronavirus nationwide continues.

State officials are implementing more measures to battle the COVID-19 Delta variant. Among them is a requirement unvaccinated for public and charter school employees to get tested weekly for the virus.

Yesterday, in Buffalo, Hochul announced she will be working with localities, the state health department and the Public Health and Health Planning Council in the days ahead to put in place mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated public and charter school employees, and to establish a vaccination requirement for all staff at state-regulated facilities and congregate settings.

"Last year every community across the state came together in a profound way to say, 'we can do this'," Governor Hochul said.

This war is not over and the Delta variant is a serious threat, especially for people who are still unvaccinated. We all need to remain vigilant to protect each other - and that means coming in to get your shot and booster shot, wearing masks in indoor spaces, and exercising basic safety measures that we are all familiar with by now.

It's currently mandated in New York that all faculty, staff and students must wear face masks in schools. Vaccines are not mandated, although Hochul says she'd like to make it mandatory but it's out of her level of authority. She's working on it.

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