While the number of new COVID-19 cases across the state continues to drop, New Yorkers should remain wary of new variants of the disease that are still emerging, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday.
The rate of new positive cases has declined for 23 straight days — “a significant trend,” Cuomo said. Saturday’s positivity rate was 4.4%.
“Yes, feel good about how we handled the holiday surge,” Cuomo told reporters during a news conference conducted via telephone. “But don’t fully relax.”
He said the so-called “variants of interest” from the U.K., Brazil, South Africa and other sites could change the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the future.
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the state has analyzed over 3,000 specimens for the variants since Dec. 23, and examined over 6,000 since the pandemic started last year. No cases of the variant found in South Africa or Brazil have been found in New York, but the state has identified 44 cases of the U.K. variant, Zucker said.
Of the 243,066 COVID-19 test results recorded by the state on Saturday, 10,793 were positive, according to the latest figures released Sunday. Those new cases included 992 in Nassau County and 1,014 in Suffolk County.
Even though the number of cases on Long Island has steadily declined in recent weeks, it still has the highest seven-day positivity average of all regions in the state at 6.3%.
There were 138 deaths attributed to COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 35,178. Eleven of the patients were from Nassau County and 13 from Suffolk County.
The severe winter storm expected to hit the state on Monday could close state-operated vaccination centers, including ones at Stony Brook University and Jones Beach, Cuomo said.
Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to Cuomo, said at the press conference that anyone who has an appointment canceled due to the storm is guaranteed another one.
Cuomo pointed to polls showing many New Yorkers — including health care workers and people in the African-American and Latino communities — are reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The state is starting a new public education campaign in an effort to convince more people the vaccine is safe.
Cuomo pointed out that in order to reach “herd immunity” from COVID-19, 75% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated.
New demographic data on vaccine distribution in New York City released Sunday highlighted that disparity.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said 48% of people vaccinated in the five boroughs are white, although whites represent just 32% of the city’s population, according to 2019 demographic information. Black people make up 24% of the city’s population but only 11% of those who have received the vaccine. Fifteen percent of those vaccinated are Latinos, which make up 29% of the city’s population. Fourteen percent of those vaccinated are Asians, who make up 15% of the city’s population.
One-quarter of those vaccinated in New York are not residents of the city, de Blasio said. He did not know how many of them were health care workers, first responders or educators who live outside the city but work for city agencies.
“The clear majority,” de Blasio said during a Sunday press conference, “are people who serve New York City.”
He said the city will beef up efforts to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine in 33 minority, immigrant and low-income neighborhoods.
The city’s efforts to distribute COVID vaccines in neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic have stalled mainly because of a lack of supply, de Blasio said. The city vaccinated more than 800,000 people in January — more than the population of Seattle — and could have administered 1 million shots if it had sufficient supply, he said.
But supply is not the only reason why efforts to vaccinate eligible residents in minority and low-income communities have lagged, de Blasio said, citing language barriers, distrust of vaccines and the medical establishment, scheduling issues and other problems.
The city will boost outreach efforts and take other steps to get eligible people vaccinated in nearly three dozen communities, including Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park.
De Blasio said the city, which has been conducting a vaccine advertising program in English and Spanish, will expand that effort to include other languages, including Urdu, French, Arabic, Russian and simplified Chinese. Applications for appointments will also be offered in multiple languages, de Blasio said.
Essential workers with appointments to get the vaccine will be allowed to bring along older relatives and others eligible for the shots. Officials are also working with faith leaders and other prominent community members to promote vaccination and provide information to residents suspicious of vaccines.
“More and more people being vaccinated means the word-of-mouth factor,” de Blasio said. “People start to know someone in their life, at work or in their neighborhood or in their family, it gives them more faith in vaccination.”
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