About 600 flights were canceled within, to or from the United States on Christmas Eve
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that fully vaccinated essential workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 can return to work after a shorter quarantine period.
Fully vaccinated workers can return to work after five days if they have no symptoms and have not had a fever for 72 hours, Hochul said on Friday. These workers will always have to wear a mask, she added.
Although Hochul has not explicitly defined who counts as an essential worker, she said that includes those working in healthcare, sanitation, grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants.
“We want to make sure that our essential workforce, on which we have relied from the start – and my heart goes out to them filled with gratitude – that our workers can return. And that includes our health care, our care for the elderly, our home care, our sanitary facilities, our grocery stores, our pharmacies, our restaurants – you know who you are, â€Hochul said. “You know you are the ones who got us through the first few months of anxiety. We still need you, we need you to be able to go to work.
The governor said the new guidelines are a state application of recent guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Omicron and its differences from previous variants.
“It’s not Delta; this is not the first variant. This is Omicron, which so far … has demonstrated, as we have observed around the world and in other places where it struck first, that its impact is not as severe, â€said Hochul.
Hochul also announced a milestone in the Empire State’s vaccination campaign. The governor said 95% of New Yorkers over 18 have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. She urged all New Yorkers to get full initial vaccines and booster shots, saying three shots are more effective against the Omicron coronavirus variant.