ALBANY COUNTY — On Monday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 now accounts for about 70 percent of new cases in the United States, Governor Kathy Hochul held a press conference to go over her plans for handling the long-expected winter surge.

At the same time, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy announced three new deaths from COVID-19 and 154 new cases.

The state is making $65 million available to counties to cover costs associated with state protocols — at least $1 million will be available to small counties and up to $2 million for larger counties, Hochul said. The money can be used for purchasing masks, or putting up signs, or setting up call centers for people to make complaints.

The state’s acting health commissioner, Mary Bassett, was not at the governor’s New York City press conference because, Hochul said, Bassett has tested positive, through a rapid test, for COVID. 

“Of course, she is vaccinated and boosted so this could be a breakthrough case,” said Hochul, noting Bassett is “feeling fine” and will take a PCR test to confirm the diagnosis.

Hochul shared the diais with Kathryn Garcia, director of State Operations, and Jackie Bray, commissioner for the Division of Homeland Security.

Garcia said that 5 million over-the-counter at-home tests for COVID will be coming to the state before Jan. 1.

About 2 million will go to school districts, another million tests will go to county emergency managers, 1.6 million will go to New York City, and 400,000 will go to state vaccine sites.

Another 5 million are expected in January, she said.

“We do call upon the federal government to invoke the Defense Production Act, to get manufacturers producing more over-the-counter tests, and we’ll make sure that they have the letter out the door today,” said Garcia.

Hochul said that keeping schools open is a priority. Part of the winter surge plan, she said, is to follow test-to-stay protocols so students can use a rapid test rather than a PCR test to return to class.

Now, Hochul said, it’s disruptive to education and for parents to have students home for a long time if someone in their class tests positive for the virus. Under the new protocol, students in a classroom where someone has tested positive will be sent home with rapid tests in their backpacks.

She expects the new protocol to go into effect in January.

The state is also organizing a symposium for presidents of private and state colleges “to talk about getting back our college students when they return under normal circumstances a little bit later in January and making sure they follow the same return protocols,” said Hochul.

Bray, who coordinated hospital surge capacity during the height of COVID for New York City, noted that there are over 1,800 testing sites in the state, which can be located at coronavirus.health.ny.gov. 

She also said, “We’re bringing online a testing portal where New Yorkers can order at-home PCR tests. They’ll be mailed overnight mail. You swab yourself, you put them back in the prepaid envelope, and you get your results within 48 hours.”

Details on that program will be available at the end of the week, Bray said.

“Meet this moment”

Hochul described workers at a hospital she’d visited earlier as “exhausted and exasperated” because “they also know it did not have to be this way.”

The increase in new cases, Hochul said, is “vertical; it’s going straight up.”

She also said, “This is not March 2020.” She stressed that New Yorkers should get vaccinated and boosted as well as wearing masks indoors.

Hochul noted that soon 95 percent of New Yorkers 18 or older will have received at least one dose.

For New Yorkers who received first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, 3.4 million texts have been sent out to remind them to get a second shot. Also, 3.4 million robo calls have gone out, Hochul said.

Right now, she reported, 40 percent of New Yorkers who are eligible for a booster have gotten one. People who received Pfizer or Moderna have to wait six months to get a booster, while people who initially got the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine have to wait two months .

“We have to just meet this moment with action and not fear,” said Hochul.

“Yesterday,” she went on, “we broke another record with 23,391 cases.” The number of new cases in New York State had gone from about 6,000 last Sunday to 23,000 this Monday.

The encouraging news from other nations who have experienced the Omicron variant earlier, said Hochul, is the numbers have shot up quickly and then dropped quickly. Also, the Omicron variant appears to produce sickness that is not as severe.

On Sunday, the governor’s office, in its daily release, reported 192 confirmed cases of Omicron statewide.

On Monday, the governor’s office changed its method of reporting Omicron cases, no longer listing each case by county.

“Given the rate of spread of Omicron,” the release said, “it is more meaningful to now report the percentage of Omicron variants as reported to the public COVID-19 sequence databases, than continue to report counts of individual cases. This percentage can then be related to the total positive COVID case count in the state. This process is consistent with how the New York State Department of Health has reported on all other variants online: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-variant-data.

Data Monday morning in the GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data) database, the largest repository of coronavirus sequences in the world, show the Omicron variant comprised 11 percent of uploaded sequences from New York State between Dec. 5 and 18.

Hospitalizations in New York State are under two-thirds of what it was at this time last year, Hochul noted.

Hochul concluded by reiterating her priorities of protecting the health of New Yorkers and of the economy. “Our goal is to not let anything shut down …., We will not surrender to pandemic fatigue ….Let’s spread holiday joy and love, and not spread COVID.”