COVID-19: New York govt to give priority to healthcare workers, at-risk people for vaccine

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on October 18 that healthcare workers in patient-care settings and high-risk population including long-term care facility workers and patients would get the priority in the state to receive COVID-19 vaccine. During a news briefing, Cuomo announced some of the important details of a draft COVID-19 Vaccination Administration Program released by NYS Department of Health.

Cuomo’s office said in a statement that the draft vaccination program is designed to be flexible. given the many unknowns at this point in the vaccine development process. It said that the program accounts for multiple variables and scenarios regarding vaccine availability, the timeline for vaccine approval, delineation of federal and state responsibilities, funding, supply chain needs, and allocation requirements. 

The draft plan calls for five phases of the vaccination program in which the first two phases have been reserved for healthcare workers, most at-risk patients, fire responders, childcare providers, school staff, and other essential frontline workers in regular interaction with the public. Health adults and children will be targeted in the final phase of immunisation plan. Cuomo said that the government has come up with a plan on many presumptions. 

“We don't know how many doses we're going to get. We don't know what vaccine we're going to get. We don't know when we're going to get it...We will do it in concert with the federal government,” Cuomo said in a statement.

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'More complicated task'

The New York Governor, who has been at loggerheads with the federal government, stressed that the states cannot carry out the program on their own. He said that the federal government is in charge of producing the actual vaccine and distributing the vaccines, adding that it is a larger operational undertaking than anything New York state government has done under COVID-19 measures.

“This is a more complicated undertaking and task. And we need the federal government to be a competent partner with this state and with every state," he stated.

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