New York will no longer require local health departments to conduct contact tracing for people who test positive for COVID-19, state health officials said Tuesday.
The change will help New York public health staff focus on testing and vaccination, Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said.
“The big change for New Yorkers is that if you test positive, you no longer have to wait for a call from your Health Department,” Bassett said during a virtual appearance at an in-person news conference in New York City.
And Gov. Kathy Hochul said the surge in COVID-19 cases complicates contact tracing, which involves calling those who test positive to identify exposed people.
“Given that we have 12,000 new cases a day, it’s almost impossible to trace contacts like we’ve done in the past,” Hochul said.
Counties can now decide if they want to track people, he said.
The state reported that 12,540 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized on Monday, Hochul said. She said she expects that number to continue to rise, particularly in upstate communities.
“It’s still putting too much stress on our hospitals,” Hochul said.
Hochul’s proposed regulation to require reinforcements for health care workers was approved by the state Public Health and Health Planning Council at a meeting Tuesday. Those regulations will become effective once they are filed with the New York Department of State.
Once in place, all healthcare workers subject to the state’s current vaccination mandate will be required to receive a booster dose of COVID-19 within two weeks of meeting the requirement, unless they have a valid medical exemption. .
Department of Health spokeswoman Erin Silk said the administration is “grateful” for the approval and will provide guidance to workers and employers shortly.
New York is also pushing the rules for visitors to nursing homes. Beginning Wednesday, visitors must wear surgical-type masks and present a negative COVID-19 test taken within 24 hours of their visit.
Hochul said the state will deliver 952,000 tests and 1.2 million masks to nursing homes by next week.
– .
