Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday: “The first vaccine delivery to New York will be 170,000. The federal government distributes the vaccine by percentage of population of that state. So, the state’s population divided by available dosages is what the state gets. There’s no discretion in how much the state gets. It’s purely a percent of population which is what they say at least. We expect if all safety and efficacy approvals are granted, those doses will arrive on December 15.
“By the end of December, the administration suggests that there will be enough to vaccinate 20 million people with two dosages, which is 40 million dosages. That means 6 percent of Americans – gives you an idea of where we’re going to be coming into January, and those 6 percent will be prioritized as the health care workers, seniors in congregate facilities, et cetera. But 6 percent of Americans, having available dosages by the beginning of January, you see how far we have to go.
“New York State also expects additional allocation of the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine which has also been approved and we expect them later this month.
“We’re going to have to take two operations simultaneously. One is the hospital management situation, which is critical. We have to reduce the spread. We have to reduce the number of people going into hospitals, and we have to manage that patient load going into hospitals. We don’t want the hospitals overwhelmed. At the same time, you have the vaccine management program. The vaccine management program, we need the federal funding, we need a real aggressive outreach effort, we need social acceptance and confidence to take the vaccine.”
