
Cuomo: New Yorkers age 50 and above will qualify Tuesday for COVID-19 vaccine

New Yorkers age 50 and older will be able to schedule their vaccinations for COVID-19 starting Tuesday, the latest expansion of the eligibility as the state anticipates significant increases in vaccine supplies in coming weeks.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made the announcement Monday during a gathering with Black community leaders at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, where he was visiting the opening of another pop-up vaccination site.
During an afternoon conference call with reporters, Cuomo said the expansion of eligibility to hundreds of thousands more New Yorkers comes as the state expects a major increase in its supply of the vaccine from the Biden administration, particularly if drugmaker AstraZeneca receives approval for its new COVID-19 vaccine.
The state has been receiving from 300,000 to more than 600,000 first doses of the vaccines per week since February, but Cuomo said the supply could potentially double. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said last week that the state will receive on average 1.65 million weekly doses of the vaccine by the end of April.
"What you will see in the next couple of weeks is a dramatic increase in the allocation," Cuomo said. "Johnson & Johnson is going to ramp up with the partnership with Merck. If AstraZeneca comes online, there's going to be a ramp-up. Pfizer and Moderna is going to ramp up. So you are going to see a spike in the allocation."
AstraZeneca reported Monday that its vaccine was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 — including in older adults — and was 100% effective in preventing severe illnesses or hospitalizations among vaccinated volunteers.
The company expects to file an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, seeking emergency use authorization for the vaccine.
Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceuticals research chief, told The Associated Press that the vaccine could win emergency authorization toward the second half of April. If so, the company would deliver 30 million doses immediately and an additional 20 million within the first month.
State residents in the newly qualified 50-and-older group can start booking their appointments at all sites, including pharmacies, beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
But with roughly 12.2 million adult New Yorkers now eligible, out of more than 15 million, Cuomo said it will likely be April before residents ages 50 to 59 can get an appointment. Until now, vaccines were available to people 60 and over, as well as groups prioritized by profession and their vulnerability to the more severe effects of the virus.
"When the allocation increase comes in the door, we have the arms scheduled … to move that amount of vaccine quickly," Cuomo said.
More than 7.7 million total doses have been administered, with 13.4% of state residents having completed inoculation. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses, while the Johnson & Johnson shot is a one-dose vaccine.
On Long Island, the state said 601,877 residents have gotten at least one dose, and more than 326,000 have completed their vaccination. Nearly 32% of Nassau residents and more than 25% of Suffolk residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, state records show.

Tresool Singh-Conway, of East Meadow, gets a COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site at St. Brigid/Our Lady of Hope School in Westbury on March 13. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
'A time for renewal'
The event Monday in Westchester was among several recent visits by Cuomo to vaccination sites in predominantly minority communities. The events have been livestreamed, but closed to the press at a time when the governor faces investigations and bipartisan calls for resignation over sexual harassment allegations.
Cuomo held a conference call later Monday in which he took a handful of questions from reporters but declined to comment on the harassment claims, citing ongoing investigations by State Attorney General Letitia James and the Democrat-led State Assembly.
The statewide COVID-19 positivity rate Sunday was 4.2%, with 6,361 of 152,328 test results tracking positive for the coronavirus. They include 540 people in Nassau and 612 in Suffolk. Long Island's seven-day positivity rate was 4.4%, while the seven-day statewide average is 3.3%.
A total of 46 people, including five in Suffolk, died from the virus Sunday, the state's lowest number since Nov. 27. No coronavirus-related deaths were reported for Nassau on Sunday.
Cuomo on Monday spoke of "a new season" and "a time for renewal" as spring arrives a year after the start of the pandemic.
"You see the earth coming back to life, after a long, cold, dark COVID winter … that has been unlike anything that we have experienced in modern times … but today is a new day," he said.
Cuomo also announced the launch of the "Roll Up Your Sleeve" campaign to promote houses of worship of all faiths to register as vaccination sites, particularly in underserved communities since Blacks and Latinos have been getting the shots at lower rates.
As part of the new campaign, all houses of worship will be able to serve as points of distribution for the vaccine, starting next month. Medical providers are being asked to volunteer to partner with houses of worship to conduct vaccination clinics, officials said.
Interested medical providers and houses of worship can sign up on the state's Roll Up Your Sleeve page.
"We cannot allow anything to distract from the fact that we are fighting for our very lives and we're fighting with those who have stood up and said we cannot have a segregated way out of this," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network. "We must do this together, and if Blacks have suffered disproportionately, we must disproportionately remedy wherever the suffering is."
Transit advocates rail against Cuomo budget
The $14.5 billion in federal COVID-19 relief provided to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority during the past year should not be an excuse for the state to cut its funding for the transit agency, advocates and some state lawmakers said Monday.
In a virtual news conference, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) chided Cuomo’s executive budget proposal to divert $145 million in dedicated funds to the MTA, which has seen fares and other revenues decimated over the past year.
"There are needs beyond just taking us back to where we were a year ago. That’s why, here in the state level, we can’t just allow the federal government to give us an excuse to pare back state aid," Gianaris said. "We are accomplishing nothing if we just take that money and lessen the dedicated commitment that the state has made."
Cuomo budget officials have defended the decision to divert some transit dollars — saying it was part of a 5% cut across all state agencies to address deficits brought on by the coronavirus.
"There are no raids to transit funding," said State Budget Office spokesman Freeman Klopott. "In the absence of federal assistance, the executive budget included across-the-board reductions across all program areas."
With MTA ridership still down by about two-thirds as compared to pre-pandemic levels — and even more depressed on the Long Island Rail Road — the agency was facing its worst financial crisis.
Three federal bailout packages — including a $6.5 billion rescue approved this month in the stimulus package — are expected to make the MTA whole for at least the next couple years.
But even with its immediate budget crisis averted, Danny Pearlstein, spokesman for the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group, said threats remain to the MTA’s finances, and "unfortunately one of those threats is embodied in Gov. Cuomo’s executive budget."
With Alfonso A. Castillo and AP
GETTING COVID-19 VACCINES IN NY
- To complete a prescreening and find sites to schedule COVID-19 shots, people in the eligible lists can visit https://am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/
- State residents may call the New York State Vaccination Hotline: 1-833-NYS-4VAX (1-833-697-4829)
- Northwell Health is booking its COVID-19 vaccine appointments online at northwell.edu/covidvaccine
- Call or visit your local pharmacist to check for participation in the state's vaccination effort.
- The state's phase distribution guidelines can be found at: https://covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/phased-distribution-vaccine
Who qualifies for COVID-19 shots?
The State of New York has expended its eligibility list for vaccines against COVID-19 several times, expanding the groups of people included in the phases. This is a summary of the eligible groups. The following are the qualifying categories, as revised on March 29.
Group in Phase 1A
The state said about 2.1 million state residents belong in this group, including:
- Health care workers at hospitals who interact with patients.
- Residents and staff at nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
- Dentists, psychologists and others deemed health care workers with direct contact with patients.
- Employees of Federally Qualified Health Centers.
- EMT volunteers and staff.
- Coroners, medical examiners, some funeral workers.
- Staff and residents of state facilities for people with developmental disabilities, mental health care and addiction services.
- Employees at urgent care centers.
- Individuals administering COVID-19 vaccines, including local health department staff.
- Staff at ambulatory centers.
- Home care and hospice workers.
- Residents and staff at other congregate care facilities.
Group in Phase 1B
The state estimated about 3.2 million residents belong in this group, including:
- People 75 years of age and older.
- Teachers and education workers, including in-person college instructors, substitute teachers, student teachers, school administrators, paraprofessional staff, support staff, contractors in schools and bus drivers.
- First responders, including police; firefighters; state police; sheriff’s offices; county, town and village police departments, and other law enforcement offices.
- Public safety workers, including dispatchers and technicians.
- Public transit workers, including airport, railroad, subway, bus, ferry and Port Authority employees.
- Corrections officers.
- Other sworn and civilian personnel, such as court and peace officers.
- Grocery store workers dealing with the public.
- Individuals living in homeless shelters.
Following federal recommendations:
- Since Feb. 15, people at risk of moderate to severe illness due to health conditions, immunocompromised status or comorbidities, including ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and chronic kidney disease. The full list of qualifying conditions is listed with the announcement on the state's website.
Added at the discretion of local governments:
- Taxi drivers.
- Restaurant workers.
- Residents of facilities for developmentally disabled people.
- Hotel workers who interact with the public.
Other expansions of eligibility:
- State residents age 60 and older (Since March 10, 2021).
- “Public-facing” government and public employees (Since March 17, 2021).
- Workers for not-for-profit organizations who provide “public-facing” services (Since March 17, 2021).
- Building service workers who are “public-facing” employees (Since March 17, 2021).
- State residents age 50 and older (Since March 23, 2021).
Since March 30, 2021:
- State residents age 30 and older.
Since April 6, 2021:
- State residents age 16 and older.
SOURCE: New York State, Northwell Health.
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