BUFFALO, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday announced people with certain comorbidities and underlying conditions will soon be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Here's the full list of comorbidities and underlying conditions released by the state.
- 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 governor said the list is subject to change as more information becomes available.
People with these conditions become eligible for the vaccine on February 15.
Moving forward the state will be reallocating some of the doses now that statewide 75 percent of hospital workers have been vaccinated.
"That is exactly where we needed to be, and we are there," Cuomo said.
So the state is giving hospitals one more week to administer doses to the last workers who want the vaccine, before reallocating the majority of those doses to local health departments to help cover people with comorbidities.
"The hospitals will still get enough doses to do who they have to do, and who they've scheduled, and any workers who they can convince to take it," Cuomo added.
At this point, we don't know the exact amount for how many more doses health departments will get, but we do know the demand for the vaccine is expected to increase significantly.
A spokesperson with the Erie County Health Department told 2 On Your Side in an email, "If weekly allocations to our departments increase, our PODs [Points of Distribution Clinics] will be able to work through previously cancelled appointments more quickly, and we will be able to open up new appointments to groups in Phase 1B as directed by NYS sooner than anticipated. Without knowing precise numbers, we can’t estimate how much sooner that may be."
2 On Your Side reached out to a spokesperson with the governor's office and the New York State Department of Health to see if people will need to show proof of their condition, and if so, what kind of proof?
Neither could give us a direct answer to those questions Friday night.
Learn more about the governor's announcement here.