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NY making COVID vaccines available to police, firefighters starting Monday

Teachers and people over 75 will also be eligible, opening vaccinations to 3.2 million additional New Yorkers

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By Kevin Tampone
syracuse.com

Albany, N.Y. — New York will make Covid-19 vaccines available to millions more people in the state starting Monday, including teachers, police, firefighters and people 75 and up.

The move will open vaccinations to 3.2 million additional New Yorkers. That’s on top of the 2.1 million health care workers and nursing home residents already able to get shots.

But for the foreseeable future, vaccines will remain tough to get. New York still gets only 300,000 doses of vaccine a week from the federal government, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today.

If that pace continues, it will take until April to vaccinate all of New Yorkers who will be eligible starting Monday. People may end up waiting weeks or months for an appointment if the supply doesn’t increase.

“Everyone is going to say I need more,” Cuomo said during a press conference in Albany. “And they’re all going to be right. We are rationing a scarce commodity that we don’t control.”

(c)2021 Syracuse Media Group, N.Y.

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