What to Know
- Three new mass vaccination sites open on Long Island on Friday; appointments for those sites open up for booking Wednesday, the same day the next essential worker class is eligible statewide
- New Jersey and Connecticut have expanded eligibility significantly in recent weeks; CT Gov. Ned Lamont says he plans to open access to people age 45-64 as early as Friday and 16-44 as early as April 5
- It's unclear when New York could do the same but Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he hopes to have all NYC residents eligible in June; 12 million+ NY adults of about 15 million are currently eligible
New York state extends vaccine eligibility to its next class of essential workers Wednesday, adding more people to an ever-widening pool that has well topped 12 million. Also starting Wednesday: Those 12 million-plus eligible New Yorkers can get vaccinated at practically any of the thousands of sites available statewide.
Pharmacies are the only providers limited to serving people age 60 and older and teachers, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo permitted them to start doing last week when all New Yorkers age 60 and older earned eligibility (including the governor).
New York's newly eligible group includes social service and child service caseworkers, sanitation and DMV workers, county clerks, building service, nonprofit and election workers as well as public works employees and government inspectors. No further eligibility dates have been announced by the state yet for more groups and it's not clear who will be next to get in line.
Ten new mass vaccination sites will open on Friday, including three on Long Island, which will bring the state's total number of mass vaccination hubs to 23. (click here for details on all 10 new locations). Appointments for those spots opened up at 8 a.m. Wednesday. Qualifying New Yorkers can schedule theirs via the NYS COVID-19 Vaccine Hotline at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX or check here.
Not sure how the process works? Or when you might be able to get an appointment? Check out our handy tri-state vaccine site finder and FAQs here
New York City and New Jersey Vaccine Providers
Click on each provider to find more information on scheduling appointments for the COVID-19 Vaccine.
Cuomo has said the state's already sprawling distribution network and vaccination pace will need to dramatically increase in order to meet President Joe Biden's plan to have all U.S. adults eligible for vaccination by late May. In addition to the new mass sites, the state and city have opened hundreds of community-based pop-up clinics and six FEMA-run sites with special federal dose allocation.
Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city could top a half-million doses a week at its sites if it had more supply. He has not so subtly blamed the state for allegedly withholding the city's "freedom to vaccinate" by limiting eligibility and preventing second doses from being used as first shots when supply gets too low.
"We're not getting our fair share of vaccine, even though we're vaccinating so many people from the suburbs, even from Connecticut, New Jersey," de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily news briefing. "We should be getting more vaccine from the state. In so many ways, we're just not getting a response. That's why we need local control so we can move this effort forward."
Moderna is beginning to test its vaccine on children under 12.
Manhattan's Javits Center, a joint state and city-run mass vaccination site, had to close down operations on Tuesday night after it ran out of vaccine doses. Gisela Ji, who had an appointment, said she was told to come back Wednesday.
Similar stories and frustrations have reverberated across the state and city in recent weeks. Cuomo has asked New Yorkers to be patient, given the limited vaccine supply and the rapidly expanding pool of people eligible for doses. Both he and de Blasio expect federal distribution to increase significantly next month.
The pace of vaccinations has scaled up rapidly in recent weeks -- the state did more than a million doses in the last seven days, including almost 135,000 in a single 24-hour span -- but herd immunity remains a seemingly far-off goal. Cuomo has put the low end of the herd immunity threshold at around 75 percent.
As of Wednesday, New York state had administered at least one dose to nearly 4.6 million people, about a third of the people currently eligible and 22.9 percent of the state's population. More than 2.3 million -- 11.8 percent of the populace -- have completed their shot series, state data shows. The governor, who is now eligible at age 63, said earlier this week he would take the Johnson & Johnson shot at a pop-up community center "within days," though didn't offer a set date.
In New York City, 1.7 million people (20.5 percent of the population) have gotten at least one dose, while nearly 833,000 (9.9 percent of the population) have both. The city did almost 375,000 total doses last week alone, de Blasio said.
Across the river, New Jersey has doubled-dosed more than 1,040,000, nearly 12 percent of its population. It took the state roughly 55 days to hit the first million doses, but just three weeks to move from that benchmark to the 2 million- milestone. It took much less time to hit the next million, which it did on Monday.
Over in Connecticut, more than 14 percent of the population is also fully vaccinated. The Constitution State ranks seventh among U.S. states in terms of population percentage fully vaccinated, according to CDC data, though state-level reporting may indicate a higher number than the federal agency's data.
Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday he would accelerate Connecticut's age-based vaccination rollout given the latest federal dose boost. This Friday, he expects to open eligibility to people age 45 and older. By April 5, Lamont plans to be the first tri-state governor and one of few in the U.S. to open eligibility to anyone 16 and older regardless of whether they have an underlying health condition.
Mississippi became the second U.S. state to open vaccination to all people 16 and older earlier this week. Alaska was the first to do it eight days ago; it's also the state with the highest share of its population fully inoculated (18 percent).
Daily Percentage of Positive Tests by New York Region
Gov. Andrew Cuomo breaks the state into 10 regions for testing purposes and tracks positivity rates to identify potential hotspots. Here's the latest tracking data by region and for the five boroughs. For the latest county-level results statewide, click here
It's unclear when New Jersey and New York could similarly open up shots but de Blasio has said that he hopes for everyone in the city at least to be eligible by June. Getting shots in all their arms, though, is a separate challenge entirely.
Nationally, about 15 percent of U.S. adults 18 years and older have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Nearly 28 percent of that same population has received at least one dose, which 65 percent of those 65 and older have done.
The race, more of a marathon, has taken on heightened urgency in recent weeks as officials fight to maintain low hospitalization and death rates while battling to contain the spread of new cases, which top federal officials say have plateaued at a "very high" level across the country. With spring break coming up, and officials worried about lax COVID protocol among people traveling, the message is stark.
Don't let down your guard. Keep wearing a mask. Get vaccinated when it's your turn. And it doesn't matter which of the three brands you get. As New York City's health commissioner says, "The best vaccine is the one you can get now."
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