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New York State to grow Covid-19 vaccine eligibility for all adults 16 and older as of April 6, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday. Eligibility will extend to adults 30 years of age and older on March 30.
That puts New York City 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 expected to start this week.
The announcement comes as New York and New Jersey see the fastest increases in coronavirus cases in the country. According to data from Johns Hopkins University in New York, 67,963 new cases were reported last week, a jump of 64% from the previous week. Health officials have warned that a COVID variant in New York could fuel further outbreaks.
As of Monday morning, 29.6% of New Yorkers have received at least one injection of the vaccine and 16.8% are fully vaccinated, according to state data. The vaccine is currently available to all New Yorkers over the age of 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 one of the earliest epicenter of COVID-19[female[feminine when the pandemic started 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.
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