Covid-19 Live Updates: New York to Expand Vaccine Access to People With Chronic Conditions – The New York Times
February 6, 2021
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The hospitals have had eight weeks to focus on their staff, and thats how we achieve the 75 percent. Were giving them one more week to do the last workers, please go back and appeal to them one more time the people who havent taken it. Then what were going to do is reallocate the doses that were set aside for the hospital workers. And we will then give that allocation to the local health departments to do people with comorbidities. And that will start Feb. 15. Ninety-four percent of the people who die from Covid are people with comorbidities or other underlying conditions 94 percent. So why dont we do this group of workers, why dont we do this group of workers? You do every group in this state when you do people with comorbidities. If you are a carpenter with a comorbidity, if you are a teacher with a comorbidity, if you are a homemaker with a comorbidity, if youre a lawyer with a comorbidity, whoever you are, 94 percent of the deaths are people with comorbidities. Were working with the C.D.C. to establish the comorbidities list. What is a comorbidity, how do you define it? C.D.C. has guidance on that. Were working with the C.D.C. to clarify some definitions, but were basically going to follow the C.D.C. guidance.
New York State will begin allowing people with some chronic health conditions that put them at greater risk of severe illness from the coronavirus to receive a vaccine on Feb. 15, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Friday.
About 1.3 million people are now receiving a vaccine every day in the United States as the country pushes to accelerate inoculations before new, more contagious virus variants become dominant. New York is just the latest state to expand vaccine eligibility beyond the initial focus on health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. Some teachers are being vaccinated in at least 25 states and Washington, D.C., a New York Times survey found.
Last month, many states heeded a federal appeal that all people over 65 should be prioritized. That was embraced by many older people, but it also caused a deluge of problems as people tried to figure out whether their state was now allowing them to get shots, how to sign up, and where to go.
In California, experts are still recommending that vaccines be administered only to people over 65 and residents and staff at long-term care facilities. But state officials launched a task force on Wednesday to sort out the logistics of expanding vaccine eligibility to people with disabilities and underlying health conditions.
Florida has introduced some discretion into its vaccination rollout; residents under 65 are eligible if they are deemed to be extremely vulnerable by hospital providers.
Some of the conditions that would qualify people to be eligible for the vaccine included cancer, heart conditions, lung diseases, liver disease, diabetes, obesity, diabetes and pregnancy, although the C.D.C.s advisory committee has told pregnant women to consult with their doctors before receiving the vaccine.
Mr. Cuomos announcement came as he said that state health data showed that 75 percent of New Yorks hospital workers had received at least one dose of the vaccine. The state will give hospitals one more week to inoculate remaining employees before it begins to reallocate vaccine doses to give them to people with comorbidities.
Across the state, more than 2.2 million doses of the vaccine have been given, Mr. Cuomo said. Virus-related hospitalizations stood at 7,937, the lowest number since Jan. 1.
The loosening of restrictions on vaccine eligibility came as a much-anticipated vaccination site opened at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, which New York City and state health officials hope will boost inoculation rates among local people of color and battle the spread of the virus in the borough, which currently has the citys highest positive test rates.
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I was trying to schedule an appointment for him for weeks now, and was getting nowhere because the appointments were all filled up. So I think enough people have been, you know, agreeing that they want to go get the vaccine. I was on a wait list for three weeks, desperate to get a vaccine. I was unsuccessful. But today Im here. Now theyre here, and they want us to get the vaccine. We are clear that you can see the people here are the people from the neighborhood getting the vaccine.
Health officials had hoped to prioritize these groups in the rollout but have struggled. Black and Latino people are more likely to contract the virus than white people, yet many communities of color have been hesitant or suspicious regarding the vaccine, particularly in light of the countrys history of unethical medical research.
Mr. Cuomo released data on Friday showing that the percentage of eligible Black New Yorkers who had received a dose of the vaccine lagged behind white ones. The governor did not provide raw totals, but said that 17 percent of the essential workers eligible to receive the vaccine were Black, compared to only 5 percent of those who received it. Among those eligible to receive the vaccine because they were over 65 years old, 13 percent were Black, but only 4 percent of those inoculated were Black.
The Yankees president, Randy Levine who appeared at Mr. Cuomos news conference along with the manager, Aaron Boone, and the former pitcher Mariano Rivera said that the team would offer Yankees trinkets and gifts to encourage people to come to the stadium for vaccinations.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday during an interview on WNYC that a mass vaccination site at Citi Field in Queens was coming in a matter of days, but he did not address the timetable for a planned location at the Empire Outlets on Staten Island. That borough was a hot spot for the virus last fall, and positive test rates have remained high.
In the same interview, Mr. de Blasio said that the policy that requires city school buildings to close when two or more coronavirus cases are reported within the same week is being re-evaluated. The rule has led to frequent temporary school closures.
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford protected people against a new, more contagious coronavirus variant at similar levels to the protection it offered against other lineages of the virus, Oxford researchers said in a paper released on Friday.
The paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, said that the vaccine had 74.6 percent efficacy against the new variant, which was first detected in Britain and is known as B.1.1.7. That was similar to, though potentially slightly lower than, its efficacy against other lineages of the virus.
The encouraging, albeit preliminary, findings suggest that all five of the leading vaccines may offer at least some protection against new variants of the virus spreading around the globe. Still, the mounting evidence suggests that mutant viruses can diminish the efficacy of vaccines, increasing the pressure on countries to quickly vaccinate their populations and outrace the variants taking hold across the globe.
In clinical trials, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine protected all participants against severe illness or death.
The Oxford scientists behind the vaccine took weekly swabs from the nose and throat of participants enrolled in their clinical trial in Britain. To determine the vaccines efficacy against the new variant, they sequenced the viral particles from several hundred swabs between Oct. 1 and Jan 14, a period when the new variant was known to be present in Britain.
The vaccine had 84 percent efficacy against other lineages of the virus, compared to 74.6 percent against the new variant, though the scientists did not have enough statistical confidence to know for sure if the vaccine was slightly less effective against the variant.
Andrew Pollard, the lead investigator of Oxfords vaccine trial, said in a news conference that the new data show that the vaccine has very similar levels of efficacy against the original pandemic virus and the variant that has been rapidly in the U.K. and some other countries.
The researchers also conducted laboratory tests on blood samples from clinical trial participants who had been vaccinated. They found a nine-fold reduction in the activity levels of the vaccine-generated antibodies against the B.1.1.7 variant compared to another lineage of the variant. Thats a sign that the vaccine may have less power to neutralize the variant, though it appears to still be potent enough to be protective.
The variant first detected in Britain has since been reported in more than 70 other countries. Public Health England has estimated that the variants rate of infection is 25 percent to 40 percent higher than that of other forms of the coronavirus.
Preliminary data from lab tests of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna suggest that they offer good protection against the B.1.1.7 variant. Novavax, which sequenced testing samples from its clinical trial participants in Britain while the variant was circulating widely there, found that its vaccine was highly effective against the B.1.1.7 variant.
The paper released on Friday did not address the AstraZeneca vaccines protective power against another fast-spreading coronavirus variant, known as B.1.351, that was first identified in South Africa. Researchers are conducting similar lab tests to try to measure the effect of that variant on the vaccines potency.
AstraZenecas vaccine has been authorized in nearly 50 countries around the globe but not the United States, where the Food and Drug Administration is waiting on data from a clinical trial that enrolled more than 30,000 participants, mostly Americans. Results from that study are expected in March.
In the United States, the B.1.1.7 variant has been identified in 33 states, but the full extent of its spread is unknown because of the lack of a national surveillance program. Federal health officials have warned that it could become the dominant form of the virus in the United States by March.
Officials in two of Americas largest cities issued ultimatums to teachers on Friday, warning them that they risked discipline if they did not show up at school buildings on Monday.
In Chicago, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the teachers union have been locked in a battle over how to reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic, prekindergarten and some special education teachers were expected to return on Monday, the mayor and the chief executive of the school system, Janice K. Jackson, said in a letter. Those who did not, they said, would be locked out of the districts virtual teaching system at the end of the day.
In Philadelphia, prekindergarten through second-grade teachers were supposed to report to schools on Monday to prepare for students returning on Feb. 22. The district told those teachers in a message that they would be subject to discipline if they did not show up.
Teachers unions in both cities have been pushing back.
The president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Jerry Jordan, directed teachers to continue working remotely and said in a statement on Friday that other than sheer cruelty and a callous disregard for the lives of educators and school staff, I cant think of another reason to push forward with a reckless plan to reopen unsafe buildings. The Chicago Teachers Union has told its members to refuse to report to schools until a reopening agreement is reached and has threatened to strike if the district retaliates against teachers who stay home.
The fight over reopening in Chicago, the nations third-largest district, has become one of the nations most contentious. On Friday, Ms. Lightfoot and Dr. Jackson said they had provided the union with their last, best, and final offer and had not yet received a formal response.
In letters to students families and staff, they said the offer included a phased timeline for reopening, under which prekindergarten and some special education students would return to school on Tuesday. Older grades would be brought into classrooms over the following weeks, with middle school students returning on March 1.
The Canadian government has extended a ban on cruise ships through February 2022, effectively docking tourism in Alaskas southeastern region for another year.
The extension of the ban on Thursday which was originally set to expire at the end of this month will allow the countrys public health authorities to focus on vaccine rollouts and suppressing the spread of new variants of the virus, according to a statement by the Canadian government.
A United States maritime law prohibits foreign-registered ships from sailing between two American ports without stopping at a foreign port in between, which means that trips to Alaska typically make stops in Canada. Without access to Canadian shores, large ships cant traverse the southeastern coast of the state, known as the Alaska Marine Highway.
According to The Associated Press, most of Alaskas 1.3 million visitors in 2019 were cruise ship passengers visiting that part of the state. Last year, only 48 cruise ship passengers visited the states shores. A report put together in September by the Southeast Conference of Alaska, a regional economic development organization, showed that from April to July of last year the area lost 7,000 jobs, but tourism was particularly devastated.
While many hoped that the tourism season could continue in a modified format, Canadas prohibition of cruise ships effectively ended the regional tourism season before it began, the report read.
Alaskas congressional delegation, made up of Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Representative Don Young, issued a statement condemning Canadas decision. The announcement, they said, was made without so much as a courtesy conversation, and was not only unexpected it is unacceptable and was certainly not a decision made with any consideration for Alaskans or our economy.
The delegation also said it would look into ways to ensure the cruise industry in Alaska resumes operations as soon as it is safe, including making changes to existing laws.
New research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday shows that statewide mask-wearing mandates were associated with a decline in the growth rate of Covid-19 hospitalizations. The study provides additional evidence that wearing of masks can help minimize transmission of the coronavirus.
The research, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the agency, found that in three weeks or more following a mask mandate, Covid-19 hospitalization growth rates fell by 5.5 percent in people aged 18 to 64.
The research focused on 10 states California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Oregon that implemented mask mandates in the period from April to June of 2020. Hospitalization growth rates fell for adults 40 to 64 two weeks or more after the mandates were put into place, the research showed. There are currently 34 states with mask mandates.
Mask orders are helping to protect people and helping the cases coming down, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director for the C.D.C., in a briefing on Friday by the White House Covid-19 Response team. She added that the data remains somewhat open to interpretation in light of a multitude of changing factors taking place during the period these mandates were implemented.
The C.D.C.s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report also published another study on Friday showing that college students appear to be doing an impressive job responding to the public health rallying cry to wear masks.
From September to November, observers at six universities, five universities in the South and one in the West, found that 85.5 percent of 17,200 people on campus wore masks, with nearly 90 percent wearing them correctly (If the mask completely covered the nose and mouth and was secured under the chin.). Proper mask-wearing rates were higher indoors, 91.7 percent, the research found.
The participating schools included five public universities with student populations ranging from 29,000 to 52,000, and one private university with 2,300 students. The rates of mask-wearing compliance were not specific by university; the research also noted that proper use of the masks varied by the type of covering: 96.8 percent or N95-type masks, 92.2 percent for cloth and 78.9 percent for bandanas, scarves, and similar face coverings.
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Were still the teeth of this pandemic. In fact, January was the single-deadliest month of the whole pandemic. We lost nearly 100,000 lives. I know some in Congress think weve already done enough to deal with the crisis in the country. Others think that things are getting better, and we can afford to sit back. And either do little or do nothing at all. Thats not what I see. I see enormous pain in this country. A lot of folks out of work, a lot of folks going hungry, staring at the ceiling tonight, wondering, what am I going to do tomorrow? And I believe the American people are looking right now to their government for help, to do our job, to not let them down. So Im going to act, and Im going to act fast. Id like to be Id like to be doing it with the support of Republicans. Ive met with Republicans and some really fine people want to get something done, but theyre just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go. Ive told both Republicans and Democrats thats my preference, to work together. But if I have to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill thats up to the crisis, thats an easy choice. Im going to help the American people who are hurting now. Thats why Im so grateful to the House and the Senate for moving so fast on the American Rescue Plan. Job No. 1 of the American Rescue Plan is vaccines, vaccines. The second, the American Rescue Plan is going to keep the commitment of $2,000 $600 has already gone out, $1,400 checks to people who need it. Im not cutting the size of the checks. Theyre going to be $1,400, period. Thats what the American people were promised.
The House gave final approval on Friday to a budget blueprint that included President Bidens $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, advancing it over unanimous Republican opposition as Democrats pressed forward with plans to begin drafting the aid package next week and speed it through the House by the end of the month.
Our work to crush the coronavirus and deliver relief to the American people is urgent and of the highest priority, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democrats shortly before the bill passed by a 219-to-209 margin.
President Biden, speaking just before the House acted, cited a weak jobs report in justifying the use of a procedural device, called reconciliation, to ram through the measure if Senate Republicans oppose his effort to speed aid to families, businesses, health care providers and local governments.
It is very clear our economy is still in trouble, Mr. Biden said during remarks at the White House amping up the pressure on an upper chamber bracing for former President Donald J. Trumps impeachment trial next week.
I know some in Congress think weve already done enough to deal with the crisis in the country, added Mr. Biden, who reiterated his commitment to fund $1,400 direct checks to low- and middle-income Americans. Thats not what I see. I see enormous pain in this country. A lot of folks out of work. A lot of folks going hungry.
Mr. Bidens comments came as the Labor Departments reported on Friday that the economy added only 49,000 jobs in January, and just 6,000 in the private sector. The labor market remains 10 million jobs below its pre-pandemic levels.
Hours earlier, as the sun rose over the Capitol dome, the Senate approved a fast-track budget measure, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting her first-ever tiebreaking vote after a grinding all-night session. The move, in theory, allows them to enact the package without any Republican votes.
Senate leaders could begin working on their own bill in hopes of delivering a final package to Mr. Bidens desk before supplemental unemployment benefits are set to expire in mid-March.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, cited poll numbers showing bipartisan support among American voters for the plan, brushing aside criticism the White House was sacrificing bipartisan solidarity for partisan celerity.
He didnt run on a promise to unite the Democratic and Republican Party into one party in Washington, she said in her Friday briefing at the White House.
Still, Mr. Biden offered one olive twig on Friday, saying his plans could change to win over moderates in both parties, acknowledging that he favored restricting the direct payments to people earning less than $300,000.
Im not cutting the size of the checks, he said on Friday. Theyre going to be $1,400, period.
Still, there were warning signs the road ahead would not be entirely traffic-free.
The Senate agreed to a proposal by Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, to prohibit any minimum wage increase during the pandemic which could complicate Mr. Bidens plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025.
Democrats did not contest Ms. Ernsts proposal, arguing that it was never their intention to increase the wage immediately, but their reticence to record a vote on the matter was a signal that the wage increase might ultimately lack the support to pass in an evenly split Senate, where at least one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, is on record in opposition.
A curfew will be imposed in Havana on Friday night as Cuba tries to parry its biggest coronavirus spike since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Havana Tribune, a provincial newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, informed the capitals population that a total restriction of movement of people and vehicles will be imposed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and that the curfew will remain in place until the epidemiological situation is favorable.
The curfew is part of a package of measures applied in recent weeks to help curb the spread of the virus: Last month, schools were closed and public transport was cut back. Starting tomorrow, travelers entering the country will be forced to quarantine for five days Cubans in state-run isolation centers at no cost, foreigners in hotels at their own expense. The number of flights from Covid-19 hot spots, including the United States, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, will be reduced as well.
Cuba is the first country in Latin America to develop, produce and test its own Covid-19 vaccines. Four vaccines are currently being tested in clinical trials. Sovereign II, the vaccine that has advanced the furthest, is expected to start Phase 3 testing in March and mass production in April. Cuba aims to vaccinate its entire population and produce 100 million doses this year. Surplus doses will be exported.
Health authorities say that tourists will be able to receive jabs during their stay, creating the prospect of health tourism once workers at package holiday destinations have been vaccinated. Tourism, one of the islands main industries, has all but disappeared since the pandemic, leading to massive lines for groceries and even bread shortages. The prospect of a swift vaccination campaign and the return of tourist dollars by the high season in the fall may make the wait for basic goods and the curfew a little easier for the capitals inhabitants.
Cuba reported only 12,225 confirmed cases and 146 deaths last year, but case numbers shot up during January. So far this month, the island has averaged around 900 confirmed cases per day, with over a third in Havana.
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I want to announce that the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has approved FEMAs request to augment and expedite vaccinations across the country. Hes ordered the first contingent of more than 1,000 active-duty military personnel to support state vaccination sites. Part of this group will start to arrive in California within the next 10 days to begin operations there around Feb. 15, with additional vaccination missions soon to follow. The militarys critical role in supporting sites will help vaccinate thousands of people per day, and ensure that every American who wants a vaccine will receive one.
The Biden administration on Friday announced that it was sending 1,110 active-duty troops to five federal Covid-19 vaccination centers across the country, a significant escalation in its efforts to take more control of a chaotic and mostly state-led effort to administer the vaccines.
Five teams of 222 troops from the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and Army will deploy to the sites, which are run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Each team will include vaccinators, nurses, clinical staff and other operational positions, the Pentagon said.
At a White House news conference, Andy Slavitt, a pandemic adviser, said that Lloyd J. Austin III, the secretary of defense, had approved the request. Mr. Austin said at his confirmation hearings last week that he would increase military support for the federal governments pandemic response.
Mr. Slavitt said that troops would arrive in California within 10 days, to begin operating around Feb. 15. Other assignments would be announced soon, he added.
The militarys critical role in supporting sites will help vaccinate thousands of people per day, and ensure that every American who wants a vaccine will receive one, Mr. Slavitt said.
FEMA, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, has said it hopes to set up roughly 100 vaccine sites nationwide as early as this month, and on Wednesday night requested that the Pentagon support the effort. The agency has said it would spend $1 billion on vaccine measures, including community vaccination sites.
The sites, and the use of the military within them, would require the approval of state governments, some of which have been openly hostile to the idea of the military assisting the efforts. The National Guard has already staffed large vaccination sites over half of states and territories have used members to give shots but the Pentagons role has been largely behind the scenes.
Federal officials also announced what they described were the administrations first steps in activating a Korean War-era law, the Defense Production Act, to attempt to speed up the manufacturing of vaccines, test and supplies what amounted at least in part to a continuation of a strategy deployed during the Trump administration.
Tim Manning, a former FEMA official and the White Houses supply chain coordinator, said the administration was using the law to ensure that suppliers of pumps and filtration units will prioritize orders from Pfizer so it can meet its production targets.
The Trump administration invoked the act to help Pfizer secure critical supplies in late December months after Pfizer first asked for that support and used it extensively to help other vaccine manufacturers. Mr. Manning said the latest moves would expand on that earlier effort to bolster Pfizers production. The law is used in part to allow federal contractors to jump ahead of other companies and secure supplies to meet the governments needs.
The Trump administration used the law 18 times to hasten the production of vaccine supplies, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the scientific lead of its vaccine development program, told Bloomberg News in a recent interview.
Mr. Manning also said that the government would begin building American plants to make raw materials for surgical gloves, and that the aim was for more than a billion nitrile gloves to be made every month to in the U.S. by the end of the year.
Were nearly 100 percent reliant on overseas manufacturers to export to us our countrys surgical gloves that protect health care workers. Thats unacceptable, he said. Well now make enough to satisfy half of all of the U.S. health care community demands right here on U.S. shores.
They are called vaccine hunters, and they are creating an ethical dilemma for health officials across the country.
With overwhelming demand in the early months of the vaccine rollout and a patchwork of rules devised by local officials, thousands of Americans are crossing state lines in quest of a shot.
The federal government has created this Hunger Games scenario where people are out there doing everything they can to get to the front of as many lines as they possibly can, said Dr. Francisco Garca, director of the Pima County Health Department in Tucson, Ariz.
So-called vaccine hunter groups scour the country for places where people can qualify for the vaccine, and then spread the word via social media. Many then show up far from home, with sleeves rolled up.
That has left public health officials grappling with how to respond.
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Covid-19 Live Updates: New York to Expand Vaccine Access to People With Chronic Conditions - The New York Times
