Governor Andrew Cuomo says about 900,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given to more than two million healthcare workers, but the governor says demand is outpacing supply.
At a Tuesday briefing, Cuomo said the state is getting about 300,000 doses a week from the federal government. At two doses per person, the state will need about 40 million doses to cover 20 million people. At the moment, Cuomo says the state has enough to cover about half of its healthcare workers.
Cuomo says New York is about to move from what he calls “Phase 1A” to “Phase 1B,” which will include essential workers and people over 75. That’s about two-and-a-half million additional people needing vaccination.
For this next phase, the governor says New York is developing a “retail network” for the essential workers and members of the general population. The vaccine will be supplied to about 5,000 pharmacies, plus health centers and private urgent care and doctor networks. More than 3,700 provider sites are enrolled in the effort. Cuomo says the most important factor will be how much vaccine New York can get from the federal government.