New Yorkers 50-Years-Old and Above Can Get Vaccinated Tomorrow

By Yehudit Garmaise

   New York will again lower its age requirements for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility when the state allows anyone 50 and older to be inoculated tomorrow, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said monday. 

   Although the state has been ready to vaccinate millions for some time, Mayor Bill de Blasio has long complained that the city and the state are not getting a large enough supply from the federal government to do so, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just announced that New York is soon going to be receiving more than 1 million vaccines per week, a reporter at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press conference said this morning.

   “We are getting more supply, and that is what we have been needing,” said Mayor de Blasio, who added that the increased vaccination shipments will allow mass vaccination sites, like Empire Outlets site in Staten Island, which was supposed to be open 24/7 to be able to go full steam ahead “in a week or two.”

   “The issue [to vaccinating all New Yorkers] has really been just getting a steady supply. There are a number of sites that are well-suited to 24-7, as long as we can get enough supply.”

   While all New Yorkers should get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their fellow New Yorkers from COVID-19 continuing to wreak havoc, the virus continues to mutate to create many dangerous variants that have been found in the city and the state.

   “We are concerned [about the variants],” said Jay K. Varma, MD, the mayor’s Senior Advisor for Public Health.      “The reason we are seeing a very high plateau or a very slow decline of COVID patients here in New York is because of these variants.

  “We know that these variants here in New York City are more infectious: that is one person is more likely to infect another person, and that is a very strong reason why we continue to have very high rates of disease.”

   The good news is that Dr. Varma reassured that “all of the measures that we take to protect against the original strain of COVID-19 work against these new variants.”

   Dr. Varma acknowledged that although some evidence shows that the new COVID strains are “a little bit” less resistant to masks, social distancing, hand-washing, and even vaccinations, those safety measures “still appear to be effective enough: far above the threshold that the National Institutes of Health and others have said.

   “So we really feel strongly that we need to continue to maintain that most important measure that we know work right now [to fight the continued spread of COVID.”

(Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)