Cuomo Appeals to Pfizer to Supply New York Amid COVID Vaccine Shortage
As COVID-19 vaccine eligibility and demand swiftly outpaces New York State’s availability, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is asking the Pfizer corporation to directly supply the state with the product.
Cuomo on Monday criticized the federal government for vastly increasing the number of individuals eligible to receive the vaccine last week without first boosting the state’s supply. More than seven million residents are authorized to receive the vaccine, but the state only receives about 300,000 doses a week.
However, the federal government has only supplied New York with about 250,000 vaccines each of the last three weeks, Cuomo said. At this rate, he said, it will take about seven months to inoculate all current eligible recipients.
“The federal government is in control of the supply, and they must increase the supply,” Cuomo said. “As a state, we’re trying to do everything that we can.”
As a phased approach, health care workers were the first to receive the vaccine. Last week, police, firefighters, other public safety workers, educators, transit workers and people 65 and up became eligible.
Due to the shortage, areas like Putnam County have no more vaccines available after hosting three events where more than 900 people were immunized. As of Jan. 15, County Executive MaryEllen Odell said she has no indication of when a new shipment will arrive.
Cuomo added that eight more vaccination distribution sites will open throughout the state this week. Five are currently accessible to the public, including the County Center in White Plains.
As of Monday, there have been 1,053,650 vaccine doses dispensed statewide.
Here are the latest updates on Jan. 19
Cuomo noted there’s been a slow decline in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations following the holiday surge.
Coronavirus cases in Westchester County increased by 712 on Monday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 84,420 since the start of the pandemic. There are now 11,658 active cases, an increase of 512 over last week.
During the peak of the pandemic last spring, active cases had reached a peak of about 12,000.
Daily testing reached an all-time high last week, with 16,024 COVID-19 tests administered on Wednesday. The county’s daily positivity rate is 6.61 percent, with 10,771 tests given on Saturday.
Overall, there have been over 1.62 million COVID-19 tests dispensed in Westchester since March.
The county reported eight more deaths on Monday, bringing the death toll from COVID-19-related fatalities to 1,797 since March. In the last week, 67 people have died from the virus, with 133 overall fatalities since the start of the new year.
As of Jan. 12, there are 554 virus patients in Westchester hospitals.
Putnam County’s total caseload has reached 6,447, with 61 additional positive cases recorded on Monday. The county’s daily positivity rate is 6.45 percent, with 946 tests administered Saturday.
A record number 1,650 single-day tests were also given on Wednesday in Putnam. The county currently has 1,285 active cases.
There have been 74 coronavirus-related deaths in Putnam since the start of the pandemic. Six people died from the virus last week.
Statewide there were 12,185 new positive cases on Monday. The daily positivity rate is 6.54 percent.
The state recorded 153 additional COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 33,052 since March.
Statewide hospitalizations stand at 8,771, an increase of 97 over the previous day. Across New York there have been 1,245,575 positive coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, according to the state tracker.
Westchester Active Coronavirus Cases by Municipality
Here are the active cases by municipality in Westchester as of Monday. With a lag between the total number of cases confirmed by the state and the tally of cases by town, the total number of municipal cases might be slightly different than what the county’s active cases reflects.
- Ardsley – 36
- Bedford – 165
- Briarcliff Manor – 72
- Bronxville – 71
- Buchanan – 43
- Cortlandt – 417
- Croton-on-Hudson – 81
- Dobbs Ferry – 107
- Eastchester – 206
- Elmsford – 64
- Greenburgh – 462
- Harrison – 273
- Hastings-on-Hudson – 70
- Irvington – 38
- Larchmont – 48
- Lewisboro – 72
- Mamaroneck Town – 119
- Mamaroneck Village – 259
- Mount Kisco – 129
- Mount Pleasant – 223
- Mount Vernon – 765
- New Castle – 139
- New Rochelle – 916
- North Castle – 107
- North Salem – 55
- Ossining Town – 43
- Ossining Village – 451
- Peekskill – 438
- Pelham – 63
- Pelham Manor – 62
- Pleasantville – 74
- Port Chester – 429
- Pound Ridge – 28
- Rye Brook – 104
- Rye City – 161
- Scarsdale – 94
- Sleepy Hollow – 172
- Somers – 222
- Tarrytown – 184
- Tuckahoe – 83
- White Plains – 691
- Yonkers – 2,783
- Yorktown – 491
