NEW YORK (WBEN) -- New York will opt into a federal program focused on vaccinating nursing home residents and staff, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday, as the state's COVID-19 infection rate topped 5 percent for the first time since May.
The state plans to participate in the program so it can focus on vaccinating high-risk health care workers, Cuomo said in a teleconference Friday afternoon.
A third of New York's approximately 700,000 healthcare workers are considered "high-risk" for COVID-19, he noted. Pending FDA approval and shipment, the state should have enough doses of the vaccine to inoculate one-third of those high-risk workers, he said.
"Nursing homes and high-risk healthcare workers, they are up at the top of the list of prioritized people to get the vaccine," he said.
Of the 208,297 COVID-19 test results that came back in the state on Thursday, 11,271, or 5.41 percent, were positive, Cuomo said Friday. New York's infection rate has not surpassed 5 percent since May 18, when 5.2 percent of the test results that came back were positive, health department data shows.
Given the ongoing nature of the state's surge in COVID-19 cases, however, its infection rate "is not that relevant anymore," Cuomo maintained.
"We're really focusing on the hospitalization rate, and hospitalization capacity," he said.
As of Thursday, 4,222 New Yorkers were hospitalized with COVID-19, up by 159 from Wednesday, the governor said. Seven hundred and ninety-five of those 4,222 patients were in intensive care units, and 403 were on ventilators.
The state also reported 60 new COVID-19-related deaths, he said. Health officials are prepared to suspend elective surgeries — a move Buffalo, New York has already taken — if hospitalizations continue to climb, he said.
Forty percent of the state's approximately 6,000 intensive care unit beds are currently available, he noted.
Cuomo on Friday urged New Yorkers not to put the health of nurses, doctors and EMTs at risk by violating the state's COVID-19 restrictions.
"Please, please, [use] a little bit of rationality and sensibility, and a little common sense. Please be smart," he said. "Yes, the vaccine is [almost] here, but you're not going to get it tomorrow, and you're not going to get it in January, or February, or March, or probably even April, unless you're in one of these high-risk categories."
"We are within sight of the goal line," he added. "But we have to get there, and we have to get there together."
COVID-19 cases for Dec. 3: 700 new cases were confirmed by @ECDOH out of 8,004 diagnostic reports received for a daily positivity rate of 8.7%. The 7-day positivity rate average is 8.4%. Total cases through Dec. 3 are now 28,108. pic.twitter.com/Zzvi6hm8Q6
— Erie County Department of Health 😷 (@ECDOH) December 4, 2020
