ALBANY, N.Y. — Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 briefing Wednesday focused on issues surrounding frustration over supply and demand for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The governor said a pattern is emerging of the state getting doses, running out of it and then waiting for more. Cuomo said the state now has more distribution sites than doses of the vaccine to supply them all, and is asking those 1,200 sites not to schedule more than their allocation.
As of Wednesday, the state is averaging vaccinating 65,000 New Yorkers a day and at that rate, the current supply will be exhausted in two to three days.
Cuomo repeated that allocation is determined geographically by region, then by percent of eligible group (healthcare 21 percent, essential workers 27 percent, those age 65-plus 52 percent) with priority being given to more effective providers.
The governor urged newly inaugurated President Joseph Biden to use his new powers to increase the vaccine supply to states immediately.
Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of the discovery of the first COVID-19 case in Seattle, Washington. Overall New York's statewide positivity rate as of Tuesday stands at 6.84 percent, Cuomo calling that good news and expressing hope that the downward trend continues.
In the Western New York region which includes Erie, Niagara, Allegany, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, the positivity rate is 6.45 percent. Currently, 487 residents are hospitalized with COVID-19 in the region.