New York State Team
New York will continue to restrict COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to health care workers and nursing homes despite calls from local governments to provide the shots to police, firefighters, teachers and elderly above 75, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
The comments came amid mounting pressure to expand eligibility following New York s slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine within hospitals, where hundreds of thousands of doses languished in freezers several weeks into the effort.
New York has received about 900,000 doses of vaccine and administered 430,000 shots so far, Cuomo said, adding the numbers reflected a major spike this week after hospitals ramped up their efforts to inoculate health care workers.
New York State Team
The latest push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York kicked off Wednesday with Gov. Andrew Cuomo announcing his third attempt since 2019 to allow adults to use the drug.
Cuomo s proposal called for the creation of a new state Office of Cannabis Management that would issue licenses for producers, distributors and retailers. It would also oversee the state s medical marijuana and hemp industries. I think this should have been passed years ago, Cuomo said during a press briefing, referring to legalized marijuana sales. I think too many people have been imprisoned and incarcerated and punished; too many of those people are Black, Latino and poor, he added.
New York State Team
New York will allow police, firefighters, teachers and elderly over age 75 to start making COVID-19 vaccine appointments on Monday, but many will likely wait weeks to get the shots due to supply shortages, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
The development came as Cuomo relented to pressure from local officials calling for the expanded eligibility in order to streamline distribution and speed up the slow immunization effort so far.
Part of the expansion effort will involve the activation of 500 pharmacies on Monday that will be offering COVID-19 vaccines, as well as hundreds of other medical offices and clinics run by local health departments.
New York State Team
Dozens of COVID-19 vaccine clinics run by county officials are opening up across New York state as part of the dire push to expand access to shots following a slow rollout inside hospitals and nursing homes last month.
So far, 46 local health departments have received doses of COVID-19 vaccines and plan to begin inoculating health care workers and other groups on the pandemic front lines in coming days and weeks, according to the governor s office and county officials.
The county health departments are part of 636 sites statewide that have been activated thus far in order to get COVID-19 vaccine shots into arms, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. The other sites include 244 federally qualified health centers, 213 hospital-related locales and 133 urgent care facilities.
New York State Team
The COVID-19 quarantine period in New York state has been reduced to 10 days instead of 14 days under new state Department of Health rules.
Under the new guidelines, people exposed to COVID-19 can end their quarantine after 10 days without a testing requirement as long as no symptoms have been reported during the quarantine period, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday.
After day 10 of the quarantine, people must continue monitoring for symptoms through day 14 and if any develop, they should immediately self-isolate and contact the local health department, or their health care provider, to report the change and determine if COVID-19 testing is necessary, according to the new state rules, which were enacted on Dec. 26.