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Coronavirus Updates: NY's Phase 2 Of Vaccinations Could Begin By End Of January

By

Jen Chung

and

Sydney Pereira

Published Dec 16, 2020

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Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press briefing on December 16th, 2020.

 

Governor's Office

By

Jen Chung

and

Sydney Pereira

Published Dec 16, 2020

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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Wednesday, December 16th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. Citing rising hospitalization rates, Governor Andrew Cuomo suspended indoor dining in NYC starting Monday, December 14th. After being shut down for several weeks, NYC public schools partially reopened on December 7th for 3K-5th grade students, with students with special needs returning on December 10th. Certain parts of Staten Island remain under a zoned shutdown.

Get answers to questions you may have with our "Ask An Epidemiologist" series, or learn more about NYC COVID-19 testing options with our explainer. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

1:20 p.m.: As New York begins administering COVID-19 vaccines to hospital workers, and soon nursing home residents and staff, Governor Andrew Cuomo says “phase 2” of vaccinations could begin by the end of January.

“We want to be in place and ready as soon as we get the phase 2 allocation,” Cuomo said during a press briefing on Wednesday. “When do we get the phase 2 allocation? Right now, we’re talking about probably late January for phase 2.”

The state is planning to build out regional vaccination hubs developed by designated health systems that will come up with a plan to set up a network of vaccination sites for people to get the shots.

In New York City, the Greater New York Hospital Association would be the vaccination hub coordinator. The association would submit regional plans to the state health department by January for state approval.

Cuomo cautioned that the timeline of when this could happen could shift depending on vaccine supplies. But the state is prepping for the next phase of doses to get up and running as soon as more doses are available, which is currently expected in late January.

“The one piece we need to start the chain is we need the delivery of the vaccines,” the governor said. "We want to be the first COVID free state. This state paid more than its fair share for COVID."

Phase 2 would include essential workers and priority groups within the general public. A plan Cuomo submitted to the federal government details Phase 2 as including first responders, teachers and school staff, childcare providers, public health workers, other essential workers who interact with the public such as grocery workers or transit workers, people living in congregate settings, and people at high-risk of severe disease from coronavirus because of other health conditions.

Whether the phase would be further broken down has not been announced. On a federal level, the CDC’s immunization practices committee is voting on recommendations for the next phases on Sunday.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said so far about 4,000 vaccinations have been administered across the state. NY’s first dose was given Monday to a critical care unit nurse in Queens, Sandra Lindsay, who the governor has said is the first person to receive an authorized dose in the nation.

About 87,750 Pfizer doses have arrived in New York State, with another 80,000 arriving in the coming days to begin the vaccination program for residents and staff in nursing homes through a federal program with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.

Another 346,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine would begin arriving in New York next week, should the FDA greenlight its emergency use. NYC has estimated it is getting more than 200,000 Moderna doses.

Cuomo also announced the Department of Financial Services will direct insurers to cover all the costs of the COVID-19 vaccine to ensure it is entirely free of charge—from the dose itself to the personnel who administer it to the bandaid placed on a person’s arm. A Vaccinate New York Campaign to inform people about how the vaccine works and how safe it is was also rolled out on Wednesday.

While the vaccination program has begun, NY is still managing rising cases and hospitalizations as the holiday season continues.

NY’s statewide positivity rate was 6.21% including micro-clusters, according to the latest figures. Intensive care unit patients, hospitalizations, and intubations all rose on Tuesday from the day prior.

Ninety-five people died from the virus Tuesday, the governor announced.

1,600 NYC Health Care Workers Vaccinated So Far

Hospital worker William Kelley gets his vaccine at Elmhurst Hospital on December 16, 2020

NYC Mayor's Office

12:15 p.m.: Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed the first vaccinations in New York City's public hospital system at Elmhurst Hospital on Wednesday morning.

William Kelley, who works in the hospital's environmental services department, and Veronica Delgado, a physician's assistant in the emergency department, received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a press conference with the mayor, Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, NYC Health + Hospitals CEO Mitchell Katz, and others watching.

De Blasio pointed out that Elmhurst was particularly badly hit in the spring, noting the staff's "heroic" work. Katz said that Elmhurst Hospital was planning on vaccinating the entire staff within three weeks. The Pfizer vaccine is two doses; the second dose is 21 days after the first.

Officials also revealed that 1,600 health care workers across the city also received the vaccine. On Monday, a handful of NYC hospitals received their shipments of the vaccine, and the first New Yorker—and first person in the United States—to receive it was nurse Sandra Lindsay, who works at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens; more hospitals received shipments on Tuesday. Chokshi said they had not heard of any serious side effects so far.

NYC's daily indicators showed 2,785 new coronavirus cases, and seven-day average positivity of 5.71%

The city is closing its COVID-19 testing sites today at 2 p.m., because of the impending snow storm, and will reopen tomorrow at noon.

Officials do not expect the storm to affect any vaccine deliveries.

FDA Approves At-Home COVID Test Kit

The United States has approved emergency usage of an at-home COVID-19 test, which can be used for adults as well as children over two years old.

The Food and Drug Administration granted Emergency Use Authorization to Ellume for its COVID-19 Home Test, an over-the-counter product that can be used on both symptomatic and asymptomatic people. Ellume, an Australian company, was developed the kit with $30 million from the National Institute of Health's RADx program, which was created to accelerate technologies for COVID-19 testing.

The Ellume COVID19 home test kid

Ellume

According to the company, users download an app and follow directions "to perform the test including a self-collected mid-turbinate swab." The user can put the swab into a single-use cartridge that analyzes it and, by way of Bluetooth, sends results to the user's smartphone. The FDA says, "Results are delivered in as little as 20 minutes... The mobile application requires individuals to input their zip code and date of birth, with optional fields including name and e-mail address, and reports the results as appropriate to public health authorities to monitor disease prevalence."

“It’s a big deal, and a huge step for efforts to take back control from the virus,” Mara G. Aspinall, a biomedical diagnostics professor at Arizona State University, told the Washington Post.

The kit uses an antigen test, which is less sensitive than the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test. The use of antigen test results, versus PCR test results, is the subject of debate among health experts. Some states, municipalities, and agencies include antigen tests in their calculation of positive testing rates (like New York state does), while others, like the Centers for Disease Control, rely solely on PCR tests. For much of the pandemic New York City did not include antigen tests in its positivity rate—causing the discrepancy with state data—but now breaks out both types of results.

In Ellume's data, a study of 198 people showed that it was 96% accurate: It was able to determine with 95% accuracy people who had COVID-19 as tested with a PCR test, and, with 97% accuracy, those who were negative by a PCR test. The FDA noted, "The FDA reminds patients that all tests can experience false negative and false positive results. Individuals with positive results should self-isolate and seek additional care from their health care provider. Individuals who test negative and experience COVID-like symptoms should follow up with their health care provider as negative results do not preclude an individual from SARS-CoV-2 infection."

Ellume expects to increase production to 100,000 kits a day in January, and the company expects to announce a partnership with a major U.S. pharmacy chain. The Australian government also gave $37 million to help Ellume expand its manufacturing. Notably, Australia, which has a very low positive test rate, does not authorize use of at-home testing kits.

Also on Tuesday: California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state had ordered 5,000 body bags and 60 refrigerated morgue trucks. California's positive test rate is just over 10%, with over 30,000 new COVID-19 cases announced each day. Newsom said, "There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we're still in the tunnel. And that means we're going through perhaps the most intense and urgent moment since the beginning of this pandemic."

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COVID-19

covid-19 updates

coronavirus

Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Sydney Pereira

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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