Cuomo says NYS will follow new CDC guidelines on COVID-19 vaccine distribution

ALBANY, N.Y. (WSYR) — On Tuesday, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York State will follow the CDC’s new guidelines on who should receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC updated their guidelines on Tuesday to say that those who are 65 and older should get the vaccine, as well as those who are immunocompromised, in addition to healthcare workers and frontline workers.

“This federal policy is making it extraordinarily difficult,” to administer vaccinations, Cuomo said. 

By opening up the vaccinations to those 65 and older, that adds almost another two million New Yorkers who are eligible for the vaccine, bringing the need to vaccinate nearly seven million New Yorkers in the first phase of vaccination.

“At the end of the day, you only have 300,000 doses for a population of seven million,” Cuomo said. “We need patience at an impatient time in history.”

Cuomo continued, “I don't want New Yorkers to think we are not doing everything we can to make them eligible for the vaccine because I want to keep people in New York as calm as we can keep them in these anxious times and I don’t want people to think that people in any other state are eligible when they are not.”

Cuomo said it could now take about six months for those seven million people to be vaccinated.

When it comes to the daily COVID-19 positive percentage rates, New York State has a rolling seven-day average positivity of 7.2%. Here is a breakdown by region:

• Mohawk Valley: 9.5%
• Long Island: 9%
• Capital Region: 9%
• Finger Lakes: 9%
• Mid-Hudson: 7.8%
• Western New York: 7.6%
• North Country: 7.6%
• Central New York: 7.2%
• New York City: 5.9%
• Southern Tier: 4.6%