Governor Andrew Cuomo says state run vaccination sites will begin accepting appointments for immune compromised New Yorkers, beginning February 14th.
Cuomo already announced that people with underlying conditions will become eligible for the vaccine on February 15th . They include cancer, heart conditions, COPD, chronic kidney disease, Type 1 and 2 diabetes, moderate to severe asthma, and people with intellectual and development disabilities, organ transplant recipients, and people who are morbidly obese.
Initially the vaccines would only be available through county health departments, but Cuomo is now opening up the state’s mass vaccination sites to the immune compromise as well.
“People with comorbidities can begin making appointments on the state sites on February 14th to open February 15th,” Cuomo said. Appointments can also begin on February 15th at local health departments, but the governor is leaving to the localities the specific rules on how to sign up for local health department appointments.
People will need to provide a letter from their doctor, or other proof that they have one of the medical conditions listed. They can also sign an affidavit, certifying that they have a co morbidity, and those answers will be audited to make sure the rules are followed.
But the governor’s Chief of Staff, Melissa DeRosa, warns that the immune compromised will be in a competition to gain an appointment time.
“There will be crush, this will not be perfect,” said DeRosa, who said she knows that there are hundreds of thousands of people on the website on a daily basis, constantly refreshing their browsers to try to gain access to the appointment sign up forms.
“That traffic is only going to increase,” DeRosa said.
DeRosa says the state is doing its best to adapt to ever changing circumstances.
“We sympathize with people who desperately want this vaccine,” said DeRosa. “But we are in a position where we are reacting to things that are directly out of our control.”
75% of all essential care hospital workers have now been vaccinated, leaving more doses each week available for the immune compromised. And the governor says he believes there will be additional doses that will not be used in nursing homes, after everyone who wants a vaccine in the homes gets one.
But Cuomo says the biggest problem is that there are just not enough doses yet to accommodate everyone who wants a vaccine and who is eligible.
“You don’t have the supply to do it,” he said.
He says on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s aids will hold a briefing with governors, and he hopes to hear that more doses will become available to states.
The full list of conditions acceptable under the category of immune compromised, from the state Department of Health website:
Adult New Yorkers of any age with the following conditions qualify for the vaccine:
• Cancer (current or in remission, including 9/11-related cancers)
• Chronic kidney disease
• Pulmonary Disease, including but not limited to, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma (moderate-to-severe), pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, and 9/11 related pulmonary diseases
• Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities including Down Syndrome
• Heart conditions, including but not limited to heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies, or hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) including but not limited to solid organ transplant or from blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, use of other immune weakening medicines, or other causes
• Severe Obesity (BMI 40 kg/m2), Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 kg/m2 or higher but < 40 kg/m2)
• Pregnancy
• Sickle cell disease or Thalassemia
• Type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus
• Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)
• Neurologic conditions including but not limited to Alzheimer's Disease or dementia
• Liver disease
The list is subject to change as additional scientific evidence is published and as New York State obtains and analyzes additional state-specific data.
New Data Shows Nearly 15,000 NY Nursing Home And Adult Care Residents Died Of COVID-19
For the first time, the New York State Health Department has released data showing that nearly 15,000 nursing home residents and others living at adult long term care facilities died of COVID-19. The data was released following a court order demanding its disclosure.
The lawsuit to release the numbers was successfully brought by the government watchdog group the Empire Center, after a Freedom of Information request to the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo stalled.
The Center’s health policy analyst Bill Hammond says the department over the weekend added to its website 4,080 deaths of nursing home residents who died of coronavirus after being sent to the hospital. The numbers confirm a report by State Attorney General Tish James, who said the state undercounted nursing home hospital deaths by 50%. And those deaths are in addition to the 9,117 who passed away in a nursing home. Hammond says the newly released data also shows that 219 residents of adult long term care facilities, including assisted living centers , succumbed to the virus at the facilities , and that 1,516 of those were admitted to the hospital from the facilities- died. The total number is 14,932.
Previously, all of those deaths were simply classified as hospital deaths. Hammond says it’s important that the public know the difference.
“The analogy I’ve been drawing is, what if you found out the police department was only reporting crimes that happened during the week and leaving out the crimes that happened on the weekend,” Hammond said.
Under the terms of the court order, the health department is expected to release more detailed data by Wednesday.