New York will expand COVID vaccine eligibility to all adults over 16 starting April 6
New York State will expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults 16 years and older starting April 6, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday. Eligibility will expand to adults 30 and older on March 30.
This puts New York nearly a month ahead of President Biden's May 1 deadline for every state, tribe and territory to make the vaccine available to all adults. But by April 6, New York will be behind other states that have already started universal adult eligibility or are scheduled to begin this week.
The announcement comes as New York and New Jersey are seeing the nation's fastest rises in coronavirus cases. According to data Johns Hopkins University, New York reported 67,963 new cases in the past week — a 64% jump from the week before. Health officials have warned that a COVID variant in New York could fuel new outbreaks.
As of Monday morning, 29.6% of New Yorkers have received at least one shot of the vaccine and 16.8% are fully vaccinated, according to state data. The vaccine is currently available to all New Yorkers over 50, in addition to many essential workers and people with various medical conditions.
New York City administered a record 478,000 shots last week and is on track to reach a total of 4 million shots this week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.
New York was an early epicenter for COVID-19 when the pandemic began last March. It now has the fourth-highest total number of cases in the country and the second-highest number of deaths, behind only California.
