Cuomo: More COVID vaccine needed in New York

ALBANY, N.Y. (WSYR/WROC) — On Tuesday, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a briefing where he said more COVID vaccine needs to be distributed to healthcare and essential workers.

On day 311 of the pandemic in New York state, the governor provided the following data:

• 152,402 COVID-19 tests processed Monday statewide
• 8.31% positivity rate overall statewide
• 8.85% positivity rate in micro-cluster hotspots
• 8.12% positivity rate outside micro-cluster hotspots
• 149 New Yorkers died from COVID-19 Monday
• 8,590 hospitalized
• 1,392 in ICU
• 851 intubated

The governor reiterated the sentiment that the Finger Lakes region remains the most problematic in regards to positivity rate and hospitalization rate per regional population.

“Finger Lakes, Finger Lakes, Finger Lakes, highest percentage of hospitalization again,” Gov. Cuomo said. “This makes the point that variance is due to the behaviors of that community, so your behavior matters.”

The governor said the state continues to organize plans revolving around the supply and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“There are two elements to understand about the vaccine,” Gov. Cuomo said. “One is the amount of supply we have as a nation, as a state, and one is the distribution. Two very different elements that have to be considered. The supply, the production by the drug companies, purchased by the federal government — that’s all a national responsibility. The entire supply is controlled by the federal government. We have been getting about 300,000 vaccine doses per week, that’s roughly 1.2 million per month. The state needs 20 million people vaccinated. You have to do that twice. That’s 40 million, so obviously it’s a very long timeline at this supply rate. So the supply rate has to increase and the supply rate is the limiting factor now. We hope and pray and expect the supply from the federal government will be increasing, but we need it to increase.”

Right now, 900,000 vaccine doses have been distributed to over two million healthcare workers in New York State.

“Obviously we don’t have enough vaccine distributed for all healthcare workers,” Cuomo said. “They are the greatest risk, but also the greatest threat.” The governor said nursing home residents and staff were being vaccinated by a federal program, and he added that he’d like the whole statewide nursing home population to be vaccinated within the next two weeks. He said health care workers were the next priority population.

“We need them [hospitals] to operate and we need them to operate quickly,” Gov. Cuomo said. “We put in place the ‘use it or lose it’ policy. We have 194 hospitals, we have other hospitals that can do it so I need to best hospitals with the best management and the best systems as part of this effort because its literally a matter of life and death.

The governor said after health care workers, New Yorkers over the age of 75 would be the next population to become eligible for the vaccine. After that the governor said the vaccine distribution from hospitals to a so-called “retail network.”

New York needs over 40 million doses to vaccine all of its residents with both doses.

Right now, there are 3,762 vaccination provider sites enrolled across New York State, and 636 of those are already distributing vaccines.

“Once you get essential workers, and the 75-or-older members of the public, then we’re going to shift from hospitals to the ‘retail network,’ which is a public distribution for essential workers,” Gov. Cuomo said. “We have 5,000 pharmacies in this state, we have enrolled 3,762 vaccine provider sites statewide.”

The governor said the state has already signed up hundreds of distribution centers in all regions across the state, including 297 in the Finger Lakes to-date. The governor said the distribution center plan will relieve hospital stress, and be capable of handling millions of vaccine doses, once the supply reaches that level.

“I’d like to reduce the burden on the hospitals whenever possible,” Gov. Cuomo said.

Below is a breakdown by region of where those vaccination sites are located:

Cuomo also gave an update on the daily COVID-19 numbers in New York State:

Here is a breakdown of the infection rate by region:

The hospitalization rate by region is broken down below:

The regional hospital bed capacity and occupancy numbers are below:

Region	COVID hospitalizations	Patients as % of population	Available hospital bed %	Available hospital beds (7-day average)
Capital Region	476	0.04%	23%	29%
Central New York	397	0.05%	21%	29%
Finger Lakes	929	0.08%	30%	30%
Long Island	1577	0.06%	24%	33%
Mid-Hudson	986	0.04%	34%	43%
Mohawk Valley	309	0.06%	22%	31%
New York City	3055	0.04%	30%	37%
North Country	87	0.02%	34%	56%
Southern Tier	228	0.04%	41%	48%
Western New York	546	0.04%	30%	30%
Statewide	8590	0.04%	29%	36%

Regional ICU bed capacity and occupancy are below:

Region	ICU beds	Occupied beds	% Occupied (7-day average)
Capital Region	235	200	16%
Central New York	266	190	25%
Finger Lakes	397	305	26%
Long Island	822	667	22%
Mid-Hudson	689	398	40%
Mohawk Valley	127	100	21%
New York City	2477	1818	27%
North Country	58	37	36%
Southern Tier	125	83	36%
Western New York	545	349	38%
Statewide	5741	4147	28%

Check out each region’s 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:

Region	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
Capital Region	10.11%	9.91%	10.12%
Central New York	8.90%	9.30%	9.13%
Finger Lakes	10.35%	10.22%	10.32%
Long Island	9.11%	9.31%	9.61%
Mid-Hudson	8.19%	8.20%	8.33%
Mohawk Valley	10.40%	10.38%	10.70%
New York City	6.24%	6.24%	6.38%
North Country	8.77%	9.02%	9.19%
Southern Tier	6.42%	5.77%	5.41%
Western New York	8.43%	8.43%	8.61%
Statewide	7.78%	7.79%	7.94%

Of the 1,041,028 total individuals who tested positive for the virus on Monday, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

	Total positive	New positives
Albany	12,852	259
Allegany	1,961	14
Broome	8,788	116
Cattaraugus	2,737	38
Cayuga	3,381	87
Chautauqua	4,017	102
Chemung	4,791	38
Chenango	1,337	11
Clinton	1,352	40
Columbia	1,792	24
Cortland	2,217	17
Delaware	771	11
Dutchess	13,190	170
Erie	43,816	374
Essex	663	12
Franklin	822	10
Fulton	1,450	41
Genesee	2,969	63
Greene	1,535	44
Hamilton	121	1
Herkimer	2,542	69
Jefferson	2,091	59
Lewis	1,033	32
Livingston	2,079	37
Madison	2,482	24
Monroe	36,705	447
Montgomery	1,559	43
Nassau	94,379	1,273
Niagara	9,393	134
NYC	448,510	4,863
Oneida	13,420	151
Onondaga	22,880	183
Ontario	3,710	58
Orange	24,579	209
Orleans	1,499	35
Oswego	3,807	87
Otsego	1,294	11
Putnam	5,235	73
Rensselaer	4,933	137
Rockland	28,568	233
Saratoga	6,543	183
Schenectady	6,619	118
Schoharie	638	10
Schuyler	573	2
Seneca	920	15
St. Lawrence	2,528	153
Steuben	3,702	37
Suffolk	104,019	1,554
Sullivan	3,276	27
Tioga	1,812	20
Tompkins	2,166	14
Ulster	6,186	97
Warren	1,387	41
Washington	982	42
Wayne	2,886	59
Westchester	73,381	619
Wyoming	1,567	34
Yates	583	11

On Monday, 149 New Yorkers died due to COVID-19, bringing the total to 30,802. A geographic breakdown is below:

County	Deaths
Albany	1
Allegany	1
Bronx	4
Broome	2
Cattaraugus	2
Cayuga	1
Chautauqua	2
Dutchess	2
Erie	9
Fulton	1
Genesee	5
Greene	1
Kings	9
Livingston	2
Madison	2
Manhattan	4
Monroe	12
Montgomery	4
Nassau	3
Niagara	2
Oneida	8
Onondaga	5
Ontario	2
Orange	5
Oswego	3
Queens	9
Rensselaer	1
Richmond	4
Rockland	2
Schenectady	4
Seneca	3
St. Lawrence	1
Suffolk	15
Sullivan	4
Tompkins	1
Ulster	2
Wayne	1
Westchester	9
Wyoming	1