Governor Hochul Announces New COVID-19 Preparedness Initiatives to Protect Public Health and Support Ongoing Pandemic Response

“As the pandemic progresses and continues to change, we must remain vigilant and be prepared for new strains as they emerge,” said Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado. “With students returning to school classrooms in the fall, we need to have a plan in place to address future variants.”

Background on Fall Action Planning

The State is actively preparing a Fall Action Plan to address potential pandemic surges later this year. Planning is being conducted in consultation with health policy experts and will also be informed by the voices of New Yorkers through a public opinion survey conducted by the State in mid-June that surveyed residents on issues related to the pandemic.

Fall planning will focus on addressing the below, but not limited to:

• A Return to School strategy, including distributing 3 million tests to schools before the beginning of the school year.
• Getting more New Yorkers vaccinated & boosted, including the ability to stand up mass vaccination sites again if the need arises.
• Encouraging New Yorkers to test early, test often.
• Promoting more access to treatment and therapeutics, including a recently launched statewide hotline for New Yorkers who may not have immediate access to healthcare professionals, as well as an ongoing commitment to support New Yorkers struggling with the effects of Long COVID
• Readying stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE), including 20 million tests ready to deploy where needed.
• Strengthening our hospital systems, including preparations to ramp up the State’s Surge Operations Center in the event they are needed
• Coordinating with federal and local partners.

Governor Hochul’s presentation on the Fall Action Plan is available here.

Background on Pandemic After-Action Review

Governor Hochul also announced a request for proposals to develop a pandemic After-Action Review, as part of New York State’s ongoing pandemic preparedness efforts. The purpose of the After-Action Review is to review the State’s COVID-19 response, identify what worked and what did not, and examine how the State could have improved its response. The Review will also serve as a guide for New York State and for other governments to use in order to respond quickly and effectively to significant emergencies, whether they are pandemics, natural disasters or other emergency conditions that create major disruptions to normal life.