BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York State is due to receive 170,000 COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government this month.
The first people to receive the vaccine will be frontline health care workers and nursing home residents. This follows the CDC guidelines.
The vaccines will first be distributed to New York on December 15.
"We expect if all safety and efficacy approvals are granted, those doses will arrive on Dec. 15," Cuomo said.
"The federal government distributes the vaccine by percentage of population of that state so state's population divided by available dosages is what the state gets," Cuomo said. "There's no discretion in how much the state gets, it's purely a percent of population."
Cuomo said it will take 75 to 85 percent of the population for New York to return to a "normal" economy.
As of Tuesday, 3,924 people were hospitalized with the virus, up from 3,774 on Monday, he said. The state also reported 69 new COVID-19-related fatalities, he said.
Small gatherings, the governor noted, are now "the number one cause for spread."
"We hope for a flattening of the increase mid-January," he said. "We hope that the increase in social activity is through the holidays, [and] after Jan. 2, people settle down, the social activity slows down, the travel slows down and the increase in the rate slows down."
