Dr. Mary Bassett

New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett has announced she will resign on January 1.

In a statement, Bassett said she plans to return to the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Bassett, a former New York City health commissioner, replaced Howard Zucker a year ago, who had served as a holdover from Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s administration. She was the first major appointment to Governor Kathy Hochul‘s new administration.

Bassett was the primary official in charge of the state’s response to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, an ongoing rollout of vaccinations and booster shots as well as efforts to respond to an outbreak of polio and monekypox, now known as mpox.

In a statement, Hochul said she is “deeply grateful” to Bassett for her service leading the department over the last 12 months.

Her departure comes weeks after Division of Budget Director Robert Mujica submitted his resignation to take a job leading Puerto Rico’s financial oversight agency.

Dr. Bassett has more than 30 years of experience devoted to promoting health equity and social justice, both in the United States and abroad. Her career has spanned academia, government, and not-for-profit work.

Dr. Bassett currently serves as director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights in the department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Her appointment is effective December 1st. Dr. Bassett replaces Howard Zucker, who announced his resignation September 23rd. Zucker will remain in the Commisioner’s office until Dr. Bassett takes over on December 1st.

Dr. Bassett grew up in New York City.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced Zucker’s departure Thursday during a COVID-19 briefing, adding that he will stay on as health commissioner until the position is filled. Zucker’s resignation marks the departure of one of the last remaining prominent members of former Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s administration.

Zucker’s resignation letter painted a picture of New York supposedly bouncing back after the worst of the pandemic has passed, with 75% of people above the age of 18 already being vaccinated, and shots in arms for children looming on the horizon.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Zucker became a fixture at Cuomo’s daily Covid briefings, offering in-depth explanations about the use of masks and social distancing while answering tough technical questions about the transmission of the virus. Zucker previously steered New York through outbreaks of Ebola, Legionella, Zika and the measles, amid other health scares, according to his resignation letter.

Despite initial praise, the Cuomo administration received mounting criticism for its response to the pandemic. State Attorney General Letitia James issued a report in January that found administration officials undercounted COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by approximately 50%. In a statement at the time, Zucker denied there was an undercount.

State Senator George Borrello issued a statement saying, “As one of those who has been calling for Howard Zucker’s resignation for months, today’s news is welcome, although sorely overdue. His complicity in the Cuomo administration’s coverup of nursing home deaths and COVID deaths overall, mismanagement of the pandemic response, and politicization of the Health Department have been a stain on our state and compromised vital public health functions at a critical time.

Borrello added, “It is troubling that he, like his former boss, appears to be exiting on his own terms. If he is resigning, he should leave today. Anything less than that means that he will be continuing to make decisions that affect the lives of all New Yorkers. If this is truly a new era of transparency in New York State government, his departure cannot come a moment too soon.”

State Health Department Health Commissioner Howard Zucker issued a statement Thursday saying, “With the end of the state disaster emergency on June 25, 2021, school districts are reestablished as the controlling entity for schools. Schools and school districts should develop plans to open in-person in the fall as safely as possible, and I recommend following guidance from the CDC and local health departments.”

During the pandemic last year, each school district in New York was required to submit a reopening plan to the state government for approval.

CDC guidelines currently call for masking and physical distancing as spread prevention strategies, adding that “if school administrators decide to remove any of the prevention strategies for their school based on local conditions, they should remove them one at a time and monitor closely (with adequate testing through the school and/or community) for any increases in COVID-19 cases.”

In his briefing on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo encouraged local school districts statewide to do the same with a vaccine mandate, “I believe school districts should say today, teachers must get vaccinated or tested weekly, if you are in a CDC high-risk area, the red or the yellow zones.”

The governor said school districts should delay in setting vaccine policies, because teachers will need time to get one or two shots before school starts in a month, “I think school districts should say ‘vaccinate or test. Schools open in one month and if you don’t set a policy today, you’re going to have chaos in one month.”

Following his announcement, officials from the New York State United Teachers union said they support encouraging more vaccinations, but not a vaccine mandate.

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There were 8 new cases of COVID-19 reported for Wednesday, August 4th in Chautauqua County.

According to the most recent numbers from the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, there were 39 active cases as of Wednesday and 2 hospitalizations.

The 7-day average positivity rate is 2.8-percent with a CDC level of community transmission considered moderate.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been over 93-hundred confirmed cases in the county, with 91-hundred being listed as recovered. 158 people have died of COVID-19 in Chautauqua County.

According to the New York State Vaccination Tracker, 50-percent of the county’s total population have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 64-thousand-213 residents have one dose while 59 thousand-288 are considered completely vaccinated.

Letitia James

ALBANY – New York Attorney General Letitia James released a searing report Thursday that found the New York State Department of Health under-reported nursing home deaths related to the coronavirus by as much as 50 percent.

The report follows a months-long investigation by the attorney general’s office’s into allegations of patient neglect and other conduct that jeopardized the health and safety of residents and employees, including information that nursing homes failed to properly isolate residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and demanded sick employees continue to work or face retaliation or termination.

The report also found that New York’s guidance from March requiring admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have increased the risk of others contracting the virus, a notion that a state-commissioned, internal report dismissed as a possibility.

Beyond the health department’s under-counting of deaths, the investigation also found nursing homes’ lack of compliance with infection-control protocols put residents at risk, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates.

In response, the minority leader of the state senate called for the resignation of state health commission Howard Zucker. Sen. George Borrello also supported the resignation, but also said that it would absolve Cuomo of any wrongdoing and called on the state legislature to seek accountability from the governor.

ALBANY – The New York State Department of Health is again advising parents and health care providers to be aware of the signs and symptoms of enterovirus EV-D68, a serious respiratory illness, which has now been confirmed in more than a dozen children in New York State. EV-D68 is causing cases of severe respiratory illness among children and other individuals, sometimes resulting in hospitalization, especially among children with asthma.

“It is important that we follow common sense rules to prevent the spread of this virus, as we do for flu and other contagious illnesses” said Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “Because there is no specific treatment or vaccination against this virus, our best defense is to prevent it by practicing proper hygiene.”

Cases have been confirmed in the Capital Region and Central New York. Specimens have been received from other regions for testing.

Enteroviruses are transmitted through close contact with an infected person, or by touchingobjects or surfaces contaminated with the virus and then touching the mouth, nose, oreyes. There is no specific treatment for EV-D68 infections other than management of symptoms, and no specific anti-viral medications currently available for this purpose, which is why it is important to take steps to protect yourself and others from respiratory infections such as enterovirus including:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid kissing, hugging, and sharing cups or eating utensils with people who are sick.
• Disinfect frequently touched surfaces, such as toys and doorknobs, especially if someone is sick.
• Use the same precautions you would use to prevent the spread of influenza.

These prevention steps are especially important for individuals or persons with family members who are infants, or who have chronic health conditions or compromised immune systems. Symptoms of enterovirus illness can include fever, runny nose, sneezing, coughing,and bodyaches. Because EV-D68 has not been commonly reported, the full spectrum of illness due to this type of enterovirus is not well known.

In addition to the confirmed cases, more samples from around the state are on their way to the New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) Wadsworth Laboratory for testing. Wadsworth Laboratory is the only laboratory in the state that can confirm EV-D68.

While there are more than 100 types of enteroviruses that commonly cause respiratory illness, EV-D68 is a less common type.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with health departmentsin several states to investigate suspected clusters of respiratory illness.DOH is sharing its testing results with CDC to assist it in monitoring the circulation of the virus nationally.

DOH is working with the CDC and partnering with local health departments and health care providers to monitor the spread of severe respiratory illnesses in New York and asking health care providers to report clusters or outbreaks of severe respiratory illnesses to their local health department or to DOH.

DOH will continue to work closely with the CDC, local health departments, and health care providers to monitor the circulation of the virus in the State and across the U.S. Additionally, DOH has issued a health alert with information and guidance regarding EV-D68 to health care providers across the state.

Enteroviruses

• Enteroviruses are very common viruses; there are more than 100 types.
• It is estimated that 10 to 15 million enterovirus infections occur in the United States each year.
• Enteroviruses can cause respiratory illness, febrile rash, and neurologic illnesses, such as aseptic meningitis (swelling of the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord) and encephalitis (swelling of the brain).
• Most infected people have no symptoms or only mild symptoms, but some infections can be serious.
• Infants, children, and teenagers are most likely to get infected with enteroviruses and become sick.
• Most enterovirus infections in the United States occur seasonally during the summer and fall.

Enterovirus D68

• Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infections are thought to occur less commonly than infections with other enteroviruses.
• EV-D68 was first identified in California in 1962. Compared with other enteroviruses, EV-D68 has been rarely reported in the United States.

More information about enterovirus EV-D68 can be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/EV-D68.html