NEW YORK — As the state enters the latest phase of reopening Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo has updated guidance on safety measures for child care facilities, day camps and overnight summer camps.

According to a press release, Gov. Cuomo says starting May 19 facilities and programs will be required to collect COVID-19 vaccination status and documentation for all staff and children.

Staff who are not fully vaccinated must maintain a distance of at least six feet from other unvaccinated staff.

The guidance says children and campers over the age of two and staff who are not fully vaccinated must also wear face coverings except when eating, drinking, showering, swimming, or sleeping/resting.

“Day camps ran last summer with zero to very few COVID cases using similar guidance to this year's, however, the guidance calls for campers to wear masks which was not mandated last summer,” said Jess Michaels of the American Camp Association of New York and New Jersey. “Children will be able to remove face coverings when outdoors and unable to tolerate a face covering for a physical activity. We do hope as we get closer to summer, mask wearing outside will be reevaluated by the DOH given how successful camps ran in 2020."

Mandatory daily health screening practices will also be required of all staff and visitors, including temperature checks.

Gov. Cuomo says facilities and programs will need to immediately report any positive COVID-19 test result by a staff member or child at their site to the state and local health department. 

Each site must also have property-specific capacity limits for children and campers to ensure appropriate social distancing. 

"We are continuing to make incredible progress against COVID and lifting restrictions based on the science and numbers, but we are not yet at the finished line," said Cuomo. "To help ensure maximum protections for staff and children at child care and camp programs, we are issuing this guidance so the facilities can implement basic but critical measures that will allow them to operate safely."   

According to the release, the Department of Health will "continue to monitor and evaluate health metrics for child care facilities and camp programs and, if necessary, will issue further guidance."

For more information, read the full guidance outline.