NY Could Receive First Round of COVID-19 Vaccines This Weekend, Cuomo Says
COVID-19 in New York State
New York could receive its first shipment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by this weekend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, with nursing home residents and staff expected to be the first populations in the state to receive the inoculation.
The FDA, Cuomo said, could approve the vaccine as early as Thursday, which would begin the process of the federal government distributing it to states in the coming days.
New York is expected to receive 170,000 doses of the vaccine in its first shipment. Those doses will be targeted toward nursing home residents, nursing home staff, and hospital workers considered to be at risk of contracting the virus.
Cuomo said Wednesday that New York should be able to vaccinate the entire nursing home population in the state with its first round of vaccine doses.
New York is planning to distribute the 170,000 vaccine doses across regions of the state based on each area’s share of nursing home residents and staff, as well as hospital workers:
| Region | Vaccine Doses |
| New York City | 72,000 |
| Long Island | 26,500 |
| Mid-Hudson Region | 19,200 |
| Western New York | 14,500 |
| Finger Lakes Region | 11,150 |
| Capital Region | 7,850 |
| Southern Tier | 4,500 |
| Mohawk Valley | 4,200 |
| North Country | 3,700 |
The vaccine requires two injections separated by three weeks, which means that the federal government is expected to deliver an additional 170,000 doses around the end of the month.
After hospital workers and the nursing home population, the priority will be placed on other health care and frontline workers, as well as high-risk individuals, before the vaccine is offered to the general population.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Cuomo said, has also agreed to forego collecting personally identifying information from individuals who receive the vaccine. Democrats had pushed for that as a way to encourage undocumented people to get vaccinated.
As another way to boost confidence in the vaccine, New York has created a panel to review the FDA’s approval of the injection before its distribution. That review is expected to begin as soon as the vaccine is approved by the FDA.
Cuomo has estimated that about three-quarters of the population will need to take the vaccine for it to be effective.
As of Wednesday, nearly 5,000 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 in New York — more than 10 times what the state was reporting over the summer.
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New York will receive its first round of COVID-19 vaccines in the coming weeks.
NY to Receive 170,000 Vaccine Doses
Governor Andrew Cuomo says New York will receive 170,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID -19 vaccine by December 15th.