New York’s first female governor Kathy Hochul vows swift action on coronavirus as she is sworn in
- Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor after a report concluded he had sexually harassed 11 women
- Hochul ordered an overhaul of state government policies on sexual harassment and ethics, including requiring that all training be done live
Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York on Tuesday and in her first hours on the job sought to bring a new sense of urgency to tackling immense problems that went unaddressed during Andrew Cuomo’s distracted final months in office.
In an afternoon address, she said she was immediately making masks mandatory for anyone entering schools and would work to implement a requirement that all school staff either be vaccinated or undergo weekly Covid-19 testing. She said the state would launch a back-to-school testing programme to make testing for pupils and staff more convenient.
“None of us want a rerun of last year’s horrors with Covid-19,” Hochul said. “Therefore we will take proactive steps to prevent that from happening.”
Hochul also pledged quick action to unstick an application bottleneck that has kept federal aid money from flowing to renters who suffered financially because of the pandemic. She promised to get the state ready to distribute vaccine booster shots, when they become widely available, including reopening mass inoculation sites that had previously closed. And she also said New Yorkers “can expect new vaccine requirements,” though she did not specify what those might be.
“More on that soon,” she said.