Amid Increasing COVID Numbers, Local City Pivots to Virtual Public Meetings
Though earlier this summer things were trending in a 'better' direction when it comes to COVID-19, lately New York State's progress demonstrates otherwise.
Earlier this week Governor Kathy Hochul provided an update to New Yorkers on the state's progress, stating that the 7 day positivity rate was standing around 3.27%, with 3.99% of all tests coming back positive in the prior 24 hours.
While many people had started to get used to the 'old norm' of not masking, in person events, and things returning to normal operations, we have been hearing more and more announcements about businesses having to revert to certain COVID-related protocols and procedures.
On Thursday September 9th, the City of Poughkeepsie announced that effective September 16th, they would be holding virtual public meetings in order to keep the community safe while continuing government business. Due tp the rise in COVID cases, and largely linked to the Delta variant, Governor Hohul and New York State Legislature authorized the continuation of virtual meetings for government board and committees.
In their announcement, the City of Poughkeepsie also noted that they will be moving all board, committee and commission meetings, in addition to Common Council (which includes special meetings and public hearings) to a virtual platform.
This announcement comes just as a new variant of COVID has been found in New York State. While experts are still researching this variant more, some are worried that the Mu variant of the coronavirus is spreading quickly, and is said to be vaccine-resistant. At the time of this story being published, the Mu variant has been confirmed in four dozen countries and every U.S. state except Nebraska.