Cuomo Gives the Immunocompromised and those over the age of 65 the Freedom to get Vaccinated

By Yehudit Garmaise

     Today Gov. Andrew Cuomo surprised New Yorkers with serious underlying health conditions and those who are 65 and older by adding them to the growing pool of those can now receive their vaccines.

   The governor said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which just released new vaccination guidelines, will have to define who exactly is considered “immunocompromised,” but the governor said that the group will likely include people with heart and breathing problems.

    Enlarging the groups of people who are eligible to get vaccinated is one of the keys to a successful immunization roll-out, Mayor Bill de Blasio has often said, as he implored Gov. Cuomo in recent months to widen the categories of people who could get their shots.

   “We need the freedom to vaccinate!” Mayor de Blasio has said, and, the governor seems to be complying, such as yesterday, when he considerably expanded the first phase of eligible New Yorkers to 1B, which include those over 75 and more essential frontline workers, such as teachers, police officers, firefighters, and home healthcare workers. Today, the governor added that anyone with serious underlying health conditions and anyone 65 and older also are now eligible to get their shots.

     “We are reaching thousands and thousands of people already,” Mayor de Blasio said this morning. “People are telling me, especially, our elders and our essential workers, are telling me what it means to them, to have that sense of security, of comfort, and confidence.” 

    In fact, the governor just announced the good news that, just in the last 24 hours, 60,000 more New Yorkers have been vaccinated, bringing New York's total number of those who have been vaccinated to 665,172, leaving 18,784,828 more New Yorkers to go before everyone in the state is vaccinated.

     Seven million people out of 19.45 million New Yorkers are now eligible to get vaccinated, but both Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo have anxiously pointed out repeatedly that the state is only receiving 300,000 doses a week: a supply that cannot keep up with the required demand to vaccinate everyone as quickly as possible.

    “At 300,000 per week, how do you effectively serve 7 million people, all of whom now are eligible?” Gov Cuomo asked.

 (Darren McGee- Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)