New York Will Get Enough Doses of Covid-19 Vaccine for 170,000 People--2nd Update
December 02 2020 - 4:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Ben Chapman and Jimmy Vielkind
New York expects to receive enough doses of a Covid-19 vaccine
on Dec. 15 to begin immunizing 170,000 people, Gov. Andrew Cuomo
said Wednesday.
Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference that the initial batch of
vaccines -- manufactured by Pfizer Inc. in partnership with
BioNTech SE -- will be distributed to residents of nursing homes
and staff in those facilities. The companies will send the
necessary second doses of the medicine roughly three weeks later to
fully inoculate those recipients.
A second tranche of vaccines developed by Moderna Inc. is
expected later in December, state officials said. Both Pfizer and
Moderna have asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize
use of their vaccines, and the distribution is contingent upon that
approval.
The initial number of doses won't be sufficient to fully
inoculate the 85,000 nursing-home residents and 130,000 facility
staff in the state, officials said. However, the governor said he
expects some individuals will decline to take the vaccine.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said he was following the advice of a
federal advisory panel that on Tuesday recommended that health-care
workers and residents of long-term care facilities be the first to
receive vaccine doses. The governor said hospital-based health-care
workers in the state would be vaccinated after people who live and
work in nursing homes.
New York nursing homes were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic
in the spring. After thousands of deaths in nursing homes and
mounting criticism, the state in May reversed an earlier mandate
that said the facilities couldn't refuse to accept patients from
hospitals who had been diagnosed with Covid-19.
Stephen Hanse, president of New York State Health Facilities
Association and New York State Center for Assisted Living, said
Wednesday that Mr. Cuomo's vaccination plan would safeguard
nursing-home residents and staff throughout the state.
Under the plan Mr. Cuomo outlined, the majority of the state's
more than 19 million residents won't receive a vaccine for months.
Between 75% and 85% of residents must be vaccinated for normal
economic activity to resume in the state, Mr. Cuomo said.
The state faces serious challenges in distributing vaccines and
building public buy-in for vaccination programs, the governor said.
Given those challenges, and the limited supply of vaccines, he said
he expects a critical mass of New Yorkers to be inoculated by as
early as June or as late as September.
The governor said the arrival of vaccines in New York offers
both hope and challenges as the state has seen a sharp rise in the
number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks.
"That's the bad news; we have another mountain to climb," Mr.
Cuomo said. "The good news is, the goal line is in sight and the
goal line is a vaccine."
The share of Covid-19 tests in the state that were positive
reached 4.1% over a seven-day average as of Tuesday, state
officials said. It was 1.6% on Nov. 1.
New York City on Wednesday reported a 4.8% positivity rate on a
seven-day rolling average through Monday, according to the most
recently released data.
The recent surge in cases is being fueled by residential
gatherings -- many related to the holiday season -- and may begin
to slow and reverse by mid-January, Mr. Cuomo said.
Write to Ben Chapman at Ben.Chapman@wsj.com and Jimmy Vielkind
at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2020 16:17 ET (21:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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