COVID-19 vaccine providers can start doling out second doses if someone doesn’t get their second shot within the 42-day timeframe, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday. Long-term care facilities in the federal vaccination program will also start reallocating their unused doses elsewhere.
“We have an unused allocation in the federal nursing home program, long-term health care facility program,” Cuomo told reporters in a phone news conference. “That program has been slower than anticipated, and we believe it was over-allocated.”
He said the state is determining how many doses would be freed by these maneuvers, though he anticipates the ones created by missed second appointments would be minimal.
The governor added that federal deliveries of the vaccine will rise by an additional 5% in the coming weeks, building on previous hikes of 16% and 5% that were recently promised by the Biden administration. Inadequate vaccine supplies have plagued the rollout as doses rapidly dwindled.
Though Cuomo called the allocation increase from the feds “relatively significant,” it is “not proportionate to the need,” he said. Around 10% of New Yorkers, or 2.5 million, have gotten a first dose, which is far from what’s needed for the herd immunity threshold of 60 to 90%.
The governor is still moving ahead on reopening certain sectors of the economy, arguing that waiting to loosen restrictions until more people are immunized would be devastating economically, considering the snail-pace of the vaccine campaign. He believes supplies will remain a problem unless the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorizes another vaccine candidate, such as the one from Johnson & Johnson. Its FDA review is scheduled for February 26th.
Among those changes in restrictions, weddings with up to 150 people can start in mid-March.
“If you tell me that 150 people have all been tested and were all negative in the past 12 hours, well, then I’ll go, and we’ll dance,” Cuomo said, citing the recent Buffalo Bills game as proof of concept. COVID-19 testing does not guarantee you don't have the bug.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a Tuesday press briefing that a restart of large weddings would require careful planning. All guests will require testing, but other rules have yet to be announced.
“These kinds of settings have been a real problem in the past,” de Blasio told reporters Tuesday. NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said the city and state health departments are working together on final wedding guidance.
