As New York continues to increase the number of people getting their Covid-19 vaccinations, the eligibility criteria can expand as well. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced beginning March 10th, all New Yorkers 60 years of age and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine, while public facing essential workers from governmental and nonprofit entities will be eligible beginning March 17th. This expansion also includes public-facing essential building services workers. Also, with increased supply of the vaccine, restrictions concerning which segments of the eligible population specific providers can vaccinate will be relaxed to align with the expanded eligibility on March 17th. Previously, certain types of providers were directed to focus their vaccination efforts on specific populations.
The March 17th expanded eligibility group includes workers such as public works employees, social service and child service caseworkers, government inspectors, sanitation workers, DMV workers, County Clerks, building service workers and election workers. Truck drivers have not been moved up the eligibility list, but more and more drivers do fit the ever-expanding criteria. Unions such as CSEA, NY AFL-CIO, 32BJ SEIU, Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association Local 831 IBT, and DC 37 praised the expanded eligibility. New York also will be opening additional state-run mass vaccination sites in the coming weeks located at:
- Longs Island
- SUNY Stony Brook SH Campus
- Suffolk Community College Brentwood Campus
- SUNY Old Westbury
- Hudson Valley:
- SUNY Orange
- Ulster County Fairgrounds
- Capital Region
- Queensbury Site
- Mohawk Valley
- SUNY Oneonta
- Southern Tier
- Corning Community College
- Western New York
- Conference Center of Niagara Falls
- New York City
- Bronx Site (Final Location Pending)
New Yorkers will be able to schedule appointments by utilizing the Am I Eligible website or by calling the state’s COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829). To help navigating appointments at both state and NYC run sites, the TurboVax bot has been an invaluable resource.
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