Plugged In To Covid-19

February 20, 2021

What’s Inside

Governor’s Briefing and Announcements
COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
Guidance on COVID-19 Vaccine
Updated Links and Resources

Governor’s Briefings and Announcements

The Governor recently held a briefing and provided an update on statewide COVID-19 data and activity as of 2/18/2021. The overall statewide positivity rate is 3.49% with the 7-day rolling average at 3.6%. Statewide hospitalizations decreased by 279, for a total of 6,155. ICU admissions associated with COVID-19 total 1,199 (a decrease of 59), of which 834 are intubated, a decrease of 29 from the prior briefing. The Governor also confirmed that, on the previous day, 116 New Yorkers have passed away as a result of COVID-19.

Vaccines – More than 3.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered statewide, including approximately 2.3 million first doses, or roughly 12% of New Yorkers, and almost 1.2 million second doses. Scheduling for two FEMA-State mass vaccination sites will open Saturday at 8 a.m., one in Queens and one in Brooklyn, each with the capacity to vaccinate approximately 3,000 people per day. As well, scheduling for the four upstate FEMA-State vaccination sites will open Wednesday 2/24/21 @ 8 a.m. These sites will prioritize appointments for socially vulnerable communities based on zip codes with low vaccination rates over their first week of operation, and then scheduling will be open up to all county residents.

The Governor is calling on local governments and county executives to review all local distribution sites to ensure that vaccine distributions are fair, with respect to geography and race.

The Governor shared that lower infection rates across the State allow for advancement in reopening efforts and announced that NYC restaurants can increase indoor dining capacity to 35% next Friday. Also, on Monday the Department of Health (DOH) will announce new guidance relating to the visitation of residents in nursing homes, in accordance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC) guidelines. The guidance will include visitors to be “rapid” tested for COVID-19 prior to entering the nursing home, and DOH will provide these rapid tests cost-free to the nursing homes.

The Governor emphasized that testing is the key to reopening quickly prior to reaching herd immunity, just prior to announcing that 11 rapid testing sites in NYC have opened as part of a public-private partnership for low-cost rapid testing called the New York Forward Rapid Test Program.

The Governor, along with Department of Health Commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, addressed prior state actions surrounding COVID-19 related nursing home deaths during the pandemic and announced the inclusion of nursing home reforms in the 2021-22 Executive Budget amendments released early Friday morning. The 30-Day amendments included revisions and new language that would limit potential margins of “for-profit” nursing homes, increased monetary penalties for Public Health Law violations in adult care facilities and nursing homes, among other proposed changes.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

The COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker Website has been updated to include the following links now listed under the Vaccine Tracker dropdown menu, which provide segregated information and data.

Vaccine Demographic Data