NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces effort to expand vaccine rollout

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he's launching a new public health corps that will bring aboard 1,000 fellows to help roll out vaccinations and pledged New York will vaccinate millions in 2021.

The governor said 500 pharmacies will come online next week and pointed to a new state website launched Monday that allows New Yorkers to check their eligibility and find out where they can sign up for a vaccine.

"This is a very large group of people and it can't just be show up at the pharmacy," he said. "It's going to be much the way it was with COVID testing."

Cuomo opened up vaccine eligibility to essential workers and individuals over 75 years old in a Friday announcement — a shift that followed criticism of his restrictive approach of first waiting to vaccinate all health care workers.

Cuomo said progress is being made to vaccinate what he calls 1A and 1B workers, which includes health care workers, public employees, high risk individuals and those over 75.

Still, he cautioned that at the current rate it will take 14 weeks to vaccinate all those in the 1A and 1B categories.