New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT › Subtitle A - Governor's Office › Chapter I - Executive Orders › Part 9 - Executive Orders (Kathy Hochul) › Section 9.54 - Executive Order No. 54: Directing The Department of Veterans Affairs to Transmit Immunization Records

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
WHEREAS, New York State, throughout the global COVID-19
					 crisis, has consistently taken a leadership role in ensuring that New Yorkers
					 have access to COVID-19 vaccinations; and
WHEREAS, New York State has been and continues to be
					 proactive in ensuring that residents can return to key activities as soon as
					 possible, using programs like the New York State Excelsior Pass, Excelsior Pass
					 Plus, and other initiatives that allow New Yorkers to easily prove their
					 COVID-19 vaccination status, permitting them to return to workplaces, enjoy
					 recreational events, and engage in other activities that were crucial part of
					 their professional and personal lives before the COVID-19 pandemic struck;
					 and
WHEREAS, New York is honored that more than 700,000
					 veterans of the United States Armed Services call New York State their home;
					 and
WHEREAS, The United States Department of Veterans Affairs
					 (VA) has offered and provided free CO VID-19 vaccinations for all veterans,
					 spouses-and surviving spouses of veterans, caregivers of veterans (including
					 family members or friends who provide care to a veteran), and recipients of
					 Civilian Health an d Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs
					 (CHAMPVA); and
WHEREAS, The VA has not been authorized to provide New York
					 with electronic records of such vaccinations; and
WHEREAS, Because the VA has not been able to share this
					 data with New York, New York veterans and other residents of our state who
					 received their vaccination from the VA cannot utilize programs like the New
					 York State Excelsior Pass, Excelsior Pass Plus, or other programs or services,
					 in chi din g critical public safety services, that rely on our State's
					 vaccination records and databases; and
WHEREAS, Such data for all New Yorkers who received their
					 COVID-19 vaccinations at VA medical facilities since the inception of the VA's
					 COVID-19 vaccination program is necessary for these individuals to verify their
					 fully vaccinated status and utilize the above-described programs that rely on
					 this vaccination proof.
NOW, THEREFORE, I KATHY HOCHUL, Governor of the State of
					 New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws
					 of the State of New York, do hereby direct the VA to transmit and continue to
					 transmit to New York State electronic records of all COVID-19 vaccinations
					 provided by the VA or any entity providing such vaccinations on behalf of the
					 VA within, the State of New York, encompassing all historical COVID-19
					 immunization information dating back to the beginning of VA's provision of
					 COVID-19 vaccinations at their medical facilities as well as all COVID-19
					 immunization information at VA medical facilities going forward, including any
					 and all "booster" COVID-19 vaccinations administered at VA medical
					 facilities.
GIVEN under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State in the
					 City of Albany this twentieth day of October in the year two thousand
					 twenty-one.
Signed: Kathy Hochul
Dated: October 20, 2021