Face masks

The state Department of Health announced Friday that the mask mandate would expire Sunday, February 12. Health care facilities will be able to craft their own masking rules based on CDC guidance that takes local case counts, COVID transmission levels, and open hospital beds into account.

The CDC dropped its mask requirement for health care facilities last fall.

The latest from the DOH does not affect any facility requirements unrelated to COVID-19, including those in place for Influenza.

WRFA contacted UPMC Chautauqua and The Chautauqua Center on whether their mask requirements have changed.

Only TCC responded, stating they are not changing their masking policy. Masks are still required at TCC, Chautauqua PT & OT, and Tri-County Family Medicine until further review and notice.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said wearing a mask is one of several everyday precautions that people can take to reduce their chances of catching or spreading a respiratory virus during the busy holiday season.

The CDC director said the agency is considering expanding its system of COVID community levels to take into account other respiratory viruses such as the flu. The system is the basis for when CDC advises the public to wear masks.

Walensky encouraged people to take proactive action, saying, “One need not wait on CDC action in order to put a mask on. We would encourage all of those preventive measures — hand washing, staying home when you’re sick, masking, increased ventilation — during respiratory virus season, but especially in areas of high COVID-19 community levels.”

The CDC continues to recommend masking for anyone travelling by plane, train, bus or other forms of public transportation.

People with weak immune systems and those who otherwise face a heightened risk of severe disease should also consider wearing a mask.

Walensky strongly encouraged everyone eligible to receive their flu shot and COVID booster. She said flu vaccination coverage is lagging for at-risk groups — children under age 5, pregnant women, and at-risk seniors — compared with last year. There is no vaccine for RSV.

In New York State, 27,000 cases of the flu were reported during Thanksgiving week. This is compared with a then-record-breaking 2019-20 season had a peak of about 17,000 cases in its worst week.

The 27,000 cases in the week ending November 26 had already spiked 76% from the week prior. During that same period, the number of patients hospitalized statewide with lab-confirmed flu was 1,499, a 67% increase over the prior week.

Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine Booster

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the new omicron boosters for kids as young as age 5.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on the shots Wednesday, just hours after the Food and Drug Administration authorized them. Walensky made the swift decision without a meeting of the CDC’s independent panel of vaccine experts.

Children ages 5 to 11 are eligible for Pfizer’s omicron shots and kids ages 6 through 17 are eligible for Moderna’s shots two months after receiving their primary series or previous booster with the first generation vaccines.

Pharmacies can start administering the shots as soon they have doses. According to a company statement, Pfizer said it will ship to up 6 million booster doses for kids within the next week.

Pfizer’s new boosters were cleared for people ages 12 and up in September, while Moderna’s were authorized for adults ages 18 and older.

The FDA hopes the new boosters, which target the dominant omicron BA.5 subvariant, will provide substantially better protection against infection and disease compared to the first generation of Covid shots.

The FDA authorized the BA.5 shots for kids without direct human data on their effectiveness. The agency cleared the boosters based on adult data from a similar shot that targets the omicron BA.1 subvariant.

The agency also looked at clinical studies in kids who received the original vaccines as boosters.

The new boosters target omicron BA.5 as well as the original strain of Covid that first emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019. The FDA hopes the shots will provide durable protection even as the virus continues to evolve because they cover a broad range of mutations.

The first generation of Covid shots were developed in 2020 to target the original strain of Covid. They are no longer providing meaningful protection against infection and mild illness because they do not match the dominant omicron variant, which has mutated to evade the antibodies that block the virus from invading human cells.

According to CDC data, more than 11 million Americans ages 12 and older have received the new booster shots so far.

The request comes as Canada allowed its COVID-19 entry restrictions to expire on October 1. Those restrictions included random testing and vaccine requirements.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Brian Higgins have repeatedly urged the administration to prioritize the reopening of the land border.

Both said the Canadian land border closure placed severe economic strains on the supply chains of New York businesses, hospitals, and medical equipment providers that rely on travel across the northern border to produce essential goods and services.

In October 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would reopen the U.S.-Canada land border to fully vaccinated travelers from Canada.

Earlier this week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it was ending its country-specific COVID-19 travel advisories. Gillibrand and Higgins point to this as further acknowledgement of the changing dynamics of the pandemic and justification for the U.S. to also proceed with the lifting of northern border travel restrictions.

Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine Booster

Masks are now optional on public transit, public shelters, and correctional facilities in New York State.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced masking requirements will remain in effect at state-regulated health care facilities, adult care facilities, and clinical settings.

She said the state will continue following COVID-19 data and will adjust policies as needed.

Hochul also announced that the new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters are now available in New York State. These boosters are designed to add Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants and bolster previous vaccination protection. The announcement follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s recommendation to use updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for anyone age 12 or older and from Moderna for those 18 or older.

To be eligible to receive the updated booster, individuals must have completed their original vaccine series or received a booster at least two months before.

New Yorkers should contact their regular health care provider, local pharmacy, or local county health department about getting the booster. New Yorkers can also visit vaccines.gov, text their ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find nearby vaccination locations.

Hochul said in the coming weeks, the CDC is expected to announce updated COVID-19 boosters for younger pediatric groups. Until then, the monovalent mRNA Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine remains authorized for use as boosters in children ages 5 through 11 and for all primary series vaccinations.

According to the New York State COVID-19 Testing Tracker, Chautauqua County’s seven-day average positivity rate is 12.5%. The CDC Community Level is now at medium. At this level, the CDC recommends wearing a mask if you have symptoms of COVID-19, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID. They also recommend wearing a mask on public transportation.

Jamestown School Board (August 16, 2022)

The Jamestown School Board has approved increasing substitute bus driver pay.

Effective August 30, the rates of pay will now be $19 a hour for a regular substitute and $21 an hour for a retired substitute.

School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said having enough bus drivers has been a challenge, “Bus drivers can be of any age of course. But they tend to be more retired folks, folks who are in their second career, and they were over the past two years at a higher risk for complications of COVID. So, sitting in a bus with whether it’s 12 kids or 50 kids is a higher risk than not doing that. So there were challenges there. With COVID easing, we’ve been fortunate to maintain the level of bus drivers that we’ve needed.”

Whitaker said the job market has been tight with the COVID Pandemic adding another layer of challenges last year and the year before, “We had a mandatory quarantine period. So, if you had potential symptoms or thought you might have been sick, you’re out for five days or two weeks depending on the time frame for when that happened. So, that drove up the need for substitute teachers significantly. Even if you wanted to come back to work, you couldn’t. You weren’t allowed to. So, we had a dearth of substitutes last year as did all districts. And we really focused on beefing that up this year.”

Whitaker said he believes statistic show that more teachers have retired over the last two years than what is traditional, “And I don’t think we’re different from the standard trend across the country in that. However, we’ve been fortunate in being able to hire teachers back into those positions, so we have found qualified personnel.”

Whitaker added that school districts are still waiting to see what New York State’s guidance will be for staff who test positive or are symptomatic for COVID-19.

The revised recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ease social distancing requirements and no longer encourage Americans to quarantine if they come into close contact with an infected person.

According to the CDC, regardless of if you’ve been vaccinated, you should isolate from others when you have COVID-19. You should also isolate if you are ill or suspect that you have COVID-19 but are waiting on test results.

Monkeypox Information Provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The World Health Organization has declared a global emergency over the monkeypox outbreak.

Reueters reports the declaration is designed to trigger a coordinated international response and could unlock funding to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments.

WHO officials said monkeypox, which spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions, was moderate globally, except in Europe, where the WHO has deemed the risk as high.

So far this year, there have been more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox in more than 75 countries, and five deaths in Africa.

In New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York State Department of Health has reviewed and approved Quest Diagnostics’ recent application for testing to identify Monkeypox in the state. The testing, which uses real-time PCR technology to test samples from individuals who are presenting with vesicular rashes or pustules, will further expand New York State’s ample testing capacity and give providers another option when it comes to labs that can process samples and detect Monkeypox virus.

The expanded testing capacity builds on the State Department of Health’s ongoing response efforts on monkeypox, which included recently launching a new SMS-text notification effort to deliver the latest monkeypox information directly to New Yorkers. New Yorkers can sign up for text messages—which will include alerts about cases, symptoms, spread, and resources for testing and vaccination—by texting “MONKEYPOX” to 81336 or “MONKEYPOXESP” for texts in Spanish. By providing a zip code, New Yorkers can also opt-in for location-based messages.

Due to New York State’s ongoing coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s Monkeypox Response Team, New York State has secured more than 60,000 doses to date.

For more information about monkeypox, visit health.ny.gov/monkeypox.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends COVID-19 vaccines (Moderna or Pfizer) for everyone 6 months and older. The CDC said the benefit of COVID-19 vaccines, like other vaccines, is that those vaccinated get protection without risking the potentially serious consequences of getting sick with COVID-19. Vaccinating children can also help relieve the strain on families by providing greater confidence in children participating in childcare, school, and other activities, as well as minimizing the spread of COVID-19 to older or immunocompromised loved ones.

The Chautauqua County Health Department clinics will offer Moderna vaccine for all age groups. Moderna is a two-shot series with the second dose occurring 4 weeks after the first dose.

The clinics will be held at Jamestown Community College’s Carnahan Building from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. on July 13 and August 10; and at SUNY Fredonia’s Steele Hall from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. on July 14 and August 11.

Pre-registration is required for the clinics. The registration link can be found here: https://bit.ly/CHQCOVIDVax. People may also register by calling 1-866-604-6789 between 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Parent or legal guardian consent is required for the vaccination of minors. If a parent or guardian is unable to accompany their child, they can designate another adult to consent on their behalf in writing, which must include the name and date of birth of the child, the name and signature of the parent or guardian, and the name of designee. Photo identification and masks will be required.

COVID-19 Vaccines are also available at the Health Department’s Mayville office by appointment, and parents may also contact their pediatrician, family health care provider, or pharmacist to inquire about the vaccine. A list of pharmacies that provide the vaccine to this population will be maintained on the County website, chqgov.com.

An independent panel of advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted on Saturday to recommend vaccinating all children in the age group with one of two separate COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky quickly endorsed the recommendation, the final step before the vaccines could be rolled out.

During a two-day meeting starting Friday, the panelists reviewed data from clinical trials by both pharmaceutical companies, as well data on the need for vaccines for this age group.

According to the CDC, as of May 28, more than 400 children 0 to 4 years old have died due to COVID.

Dr. Matthew Daley, speaking at the meeting Friday, said, “Among people ages 1-4, COVID is fifth most common cause of all causes of death.”

He said data from older children and adults show that vaccination prevents death. In fact, he added, among people 5 years and older, the unvaccinated are 10 times more likely to die from COVID than the vaccinated.

The vaccine made by Moderna for 6-month-olds to 5-year-olds is a two-dose series, given four weeks apart. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 6-month-olds to 4-year-olds is a three-dose series. The first two shots are given three weeks apart, and the third one eight weeks after the second shot.

Many providers across the country have already pre-ordered the vaccine and can start administering it as early as this week.

COVID-19 vaccines

The Food and Drug Administration‘s Advisory Committee approved amending the Emergency Use Authorization for the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to expand to children ages six months through five years old. Next, the Food and Drug Administration will make a final decision on authorization of the vaccine, followed by recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Governor Kathy Hochul released a statement saying once the vaccine is recommended by the CDC Director, the State Department of Health will draft and issue guidance to providers.

Hochul said New York State is already making preparations to boost vaccination rates among children under the age of five with vaccine providers across the state already placing preliminary orders for 39,000 dosages. She added the State Department of Health is working to ensure providers across the state will be able to request additional doses, as well as developing a comprehensive statewide paid media campaign to encourage vaccinations that will launch this summer.