NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2021) New York state residents aged 50 and above will be eligible for vaccine shots starting Tuesday morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
"Starting tomorrow at 8 AM [12:00 p.m. GMT], all New Yorkers aged 50+ will be eligible for the vaccine," Cuomo said via Twitter on Monday.
During a briefing, the governor said the state will have enough to equitably vaccinate New York residents.
New York state has some 19.5 million people, according to a 2019 census. Roughly a quarter of them have been vaccinated for the COVID-19 as of the first week of this month, judging by the 5.5 million doses that state officials said had been administered.
CNBC reported that more US states were moving to meet President Joe Biden's goal of making every adult American age 18 and older eligible for a vaccine by May 1. Biden, who came into office on January 20, set a target of delivering 100 million COVID-19 shots within 100 days, but managed to make good on that promise in less than 60 days.
Since then, the president has pushed for a speedier pace of immunization and even predicted that families could hold yard barbecues among themselves by the Fourth of July Independence Day holiday.
Aside from New York, Florida on Monday became the latest state to begin vaccinating residents age 50 and older. Texas expanded eligibility to the age group beginning last week.
New York was the biggest COVID-19 hotspot at the height of the pandemic last year. At the peak of the outbreak in April, the state had about 18,000 people in hospital and there were roughly 800 people dying a day from complications caused by the virus.
On Sunday, COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York were at 4,355, with 54 fatalities.
