7 months to vaccinate those currently eligible, Cuomo says

Cuomo: It will take NY over 7 months to vaccinate eligible groups

Cuomo said the state has two or three days of supply left from this week's vaccine allocation and will have to wait for another delivery from the federal government to continue the effort.

He said his focus is on making the distribution of the vaccines fair and efficient so health care staff, essential workers and people over 65 years of age, among qualifying groups, all get their fair share of the available shots in each region.

"The best we can do is be fair to everyone … appreciating we don’t have enough supply," Cuomo said during an afternoon briefing.

Just vaccinating those currently eligible, under the priorities set by the state to adapt to federal guidance, "it’s going to take us seven and a half months … but at least I want us to say, we were fair with what we had," he said.

Of those categories, the state said 1.3 million health care workers, or 21%, are left to be vaccinated, as well as 1.7 million essential workers, or 27%, and 3.2 million residents over 65 years old, or 52% of that population.

Despite a falling positivity rate across the board in the state and its regions, Cuomo called the level of people hospitalized due to the virus "concerning" for Long Island and the upstate regions of Finger Lakes and Mohawk Valley — each registering at 0.06% of patients.

The number of new positives reported today: 1,096 in Nassau, 1,224 in Suffolk, 6,594 in New York City and 13,364 statewide.

Search a map of new cases and view charts showing the latest local trends in testing, hospitalizations, deaths and more.

Plus: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as president and vice president of the United States during an inauguration with health safety protocols in place due to the pandemic. Read more.

More answers to your vaccine questions

Newsday health reporters David Reich-Hale and David Olson answered questions during a virtual discussion on Tuesday, mainly from Long Islanders trying to get a vaccine but unable to secure an appointment.

The main message? Stay patient and keep trying.

"Just keep trying and hopefully you'll get lucky," Reich-Hale said during a Newsday-Live webinar moderated by Associate Editor Joye Brown. "But even in some cases when you get an appointment, if the expected number of doses don't come in, those appointments sometimes get canceled. So hang in there. That's the best recommendation."

Watch the full webinar with questions and answers here. Revisit answers from local experts about commonly asked questions here.

Town leaders urging state to offer vaccines to municipal workers

Officials from Smithtown and other Long Island municipalities say public safety could be threatened without vaccinations for essential local government workers.

"If we had snow tomorrow and I couldn’t get [plow] crews out there, it would cause mayhem," said Smithtown Superintendent of Highways Robert Murphy, who oversees 120 employees.

A group representing New York State's town highway superintendents, headed by Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Alex Gregor, has already asked Cuomo to include municipal highway workers on the list of those now eligible for the vaccine in a Jan. 11 letter shared with Newsday. Gregor said he'd gotten no response, despite following up with faxes to Cuomo's office.

A letter Jan. 14 to the governor from the association representing the 10 Suffolk County town supervisors stopped short of making a similar request but noted "the majority of our employees still are not included in any vaccine schedule as of today, endangering our abilities to provide essential services like senior meal delivery, animal shelter staffing, duties of the Town Clerk and the functions of our building departments."

Lidl giving $200 to workers who get the vaccine

Discount grocer Lidl is among the growing number of employers giving bonuses or other perks to front-line workers to encourage them to get the vaccine.

Lidl will give $200 payments to workers who get the vaccine, the grocer said in a statement Wednesday.

"We are proud to provide our employees the resources they need to receive the COVID-19 vaccine free of any obstacles. From the outset of the pandemic, we have worked hard to put the health and safety of our employees first," Johannes Fieber, chief executive officer of Lidl US, said in the statement.

More to know

The Northport VA Medical Center has begun vaccinating veterans by appointment only, and staffers are focusing on about 4,000 Long Island veterans 75 and older who are already enrolled to receive care, according to a spokesman.

Union leaders representing electrical workers on Long Island are imploring state government to elevate their status on the vaccine list to provide the workers with a level of protection in their jobs.

Cuomo said Tuesday he will take the unusual step of presenting a new state budget with two options, based on how much aid Washington sends New York to recover economically from the pandemic.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 400,000 on Tuesday.

News for you

About getting away for February break … Families comfortable taking a quick trip can find socially distanced diversions for the winter break coming. If your kids are free from classes and you’ve been confined to your home, you can find a weekend getaway that offers outdoor, socially distant attractions.

On Fire Island during a pandemic. For the year-rounders, winters are usually tranquil. Things have changed with the pandemic — but people have taken it all in stride. Some started buying properties there to flee crowded cities, others stayed longer in their holiday homes. Read more.

Kids can get finance savvy with online classes. Annaline Dinkelmann continued her series of "Teach Me Wall Street" classes online during the pandemic. She offers three online course options geared to ages 13 to 17: Wall Street 101, Investing and Trading, and Budgeting and Beyond.

Plus: Join us Thursday at noon for Newsday's next virtual discussion with experts about education and what we need — PPE, computers, compassion — and what's required to ensure the safety and well-being for staff and students. Save your spot here.

Sign up for text messages to get the most important coronavirus news and information.

Commentary

One day I will go back to the gym — but not yet. Mary Schmich writes for the Chicago Tribune: I walked past my old gym the other evening. It was 6 p.m., already deeply dark outside, but through the big window I could see the familiar bright room inside.

I stopped to stare.

Where once there would have been an after-work workout mob, now there were only a few people scattered among the machines and rows of weights. In the distance a woman in a mask was conquering the StairMaster with the determination of a climber on Mount Everest. Another masked woman was doing squats in front of the long mirror. Near the window a man in a mask and a backward ball cap crouched to lift a barbell. Before he picked it up, he spotted me staring at him. He waved.

I waved back, with the feeling you have when you float up from sleep, of something vividly remembered but out of reach. I could almost sense that room — the clanging, the whirring, the bad music, the sweat — even as the life on the other side of the transparent wall felt very far away.

Was this a dream? It felt that way, but if it was, which was the dream: that I used to go in that room several times a week, or that we now lived in a time when going into it was a risk?

In the multifaceted madness of the current world, missing the gym doesn’t rank high on the list of concerns. But one role the gym used to play for many of us was as a brief escape from the madness. Keep reading.

By Erin Serpico

erin.serpico@newsday.com

Erin Serpico is an assistant web producer who joined Newsday in November 2018. Originally from New Jersey, she now covers community events and produces local content for newsday.com while also helping run the homepage.