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Upstate’s Covid Hotline renamed Public Health Hotline as scope of information widens to include monkeypox, other health threats

As more and more questions about monkeypox surface in the community, Upstate Medical University has renamed its successful Covid Information Hotline as the Public Health Hotline.

The Public Health Hotline, which is fully funded by Upstate, will be available from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Days and times may change depending on nature and severity of public illness.

The Public Health Hotline number is 315-464-3979.

“With interest and concern about monkeypox on the rise, and with Covid still in the community and soon the flu, we thought it best to expand the information we can offer, hence the name change,” said Joey Angelina, RN, MS, who co-directs the hotline with Michele Caliva, MA, BSN, RN, CSPI. 

The rebranding of the Covid Information Hotline as Upstate’s Public Health Hotline means callers will be able to get information on questions, such as symptoms, treatments, exposure risks, vaccines for a variety of illnesses that are common in the community.

Caliva said the same team of experts who handled more that 120,000 calls about Covid since Upstate’s hotline begin in March 2020, will continue to answer the hotline.

The team of registered nurses and non-licensed staff develop their public health acumen by poring through health information from the CDC and other health agencies, hearing from Upstate’s infectious disease, public health experts and emergency management experts.

“With our resource-rich operation, we’ll be able to answer questions, perhaps lessen anxiety and hopefully keep people healthy,” Caliva said. “We’re also great listeners. For many callers, being an ear to hear their concern concern can go a long way to make a situation less stressful.”

Angelina and Caliva say that the information hotline is not 9-1-1. Calls for medical assistance should always be directed to 9-1-1.

Angelina said the timing is right for the hotline’s change in scope.

“With summer waning and colleges and schools soon to open, the expectation is that many more people will be reaching out and looking for answers,” she said. "I think this expansion of the hotline is coming at the right time."

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