On Dec. 14, 2020, transportation worker Carlos Rosa was the first of 10 employees at the University of Rochester Medical Center to receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. County leaders in New York said Tuesday that their health departments have been developing vaccination plans for years and can help smooth the rocky rollout of the state’s coronavirus vaccination program, but they need more cooperation from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration. The county executives, in a news conference on Zoom, said their health departments are required by state law to have mass vaccination plans, and they have been updating them regularly with test runs of their systems and investment in staff training.
WBFO Albany Correspondent Karen Dewitt reports
The county executives, in a news conference on Zoom, said their health departments are required by state law to have mass vaccination plans, and they have been updating them regularly with test runs of their systems and investment in staff training.
But they said Cuomo and the state health department are not providing data that they need and are leaving them out of key meetings. They said that makes it more difficult to coordinate the distribution of the vaccines in their communities when the doses arrive.
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, the head of the bipartisan New York State County Executives Association, said if the state uses the counties’ expertise, it will greatly speed up vaccinations.
AP
County leaders in New York said their health departments have been developing vaccination plans for years, and can help smooth the rocky roll out of the state’s vaccination program, but they need more cooperation from Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration.
The county executives, in a Tuesday news conference on Zoom, said their health departments are required by state law to have mass vaccination plans, and they have been updating them regularly, with test runs of their systems and investment in staff training. But they said Governor Cuomo and the state health department are not providing data they need, and are leaving them out of key meetings. They said that makes it more difficult to coordinate the distribution of the vaccines in their communities, when the doses arrive.
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Rockland/Westchester Journal News
The new federal stimulus package will provide about $4 billion in aid for K-12 public schools in New York, and it will be up to the state to determine how the money will be spent, Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday. It’s up to Albany to figure it out, Schumer said during a Zoom media call. He expected the state to use its general formula for providing education aid.
The package also includes $313 million that Gov. Andrew Cuomo can use at his discretion to support K-12 or higher education costs related to COVID-19.
Cuomo did not indicate Monday how the state might use federal stimulus money. But he has faced criticism for the way the state used $1.1 billion in school aid that was included in the federal CARES Act passed in March.