Addicts recovering in residential rehabilitation facilities will be among those vaccinated against the coronavirus this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed on Monday.
Cuomo said during a virtual news conference in Albany that the state expects to receive 259,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
In addition to staff for emergency care centers and ‘individuals administering the COVID-19 vaccines, for obvious reasons,’ Cuomo said shots would be given to residents of ‘OASAS’ – the state office for addiction services and support.
The agency operates 12 treatment centers across the state, with five in or around New York City, and also certifies and monitors ‘hundreds’ of private facilities, according to its website.
‘These are congregational facilities. Congregational facilities are problematic. This is where you have a lot of people in concentration, ”Cuomo said.
“Retirement homes are obviously the most problematic because they come together plus older, vulnerable people. OASAS facilities, which we call the O-facilities, have been merged – not necessarily older – but congregational facilities. ”
Residents and staff members will be vaccinated at both the state-run and private rehabilitation centers, as well as at facilities managed or licensed by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health, according to the state Department of Health.
Emergency services personnel, medical examiners and coroners and some funeral workers will also receive shots, a DOH spokesman said.
Luke Nasta, a director of the New York Association of Substance Abuse Providers, said the nonprofit group for rehabilitation patients was working to get vaccinations.
Nasta, chief executive of the Camelot Family Foundation, which runs two residential treatment centers on Staten Island, said it made sense to give drug users the shots because they were more likely to get the disease and spread it.
‘We were initially overlooked. “We got the attention of the governors’ office and the Cuomo government acted appropriately,” he said.
Meanwhile, the percentage of New Yorkers who tested positive for coronavirus during the three-day Christmas weekend jumped from 5.8 percent to 8.3 percent, Cuomo said.
The increase may indicate that a surge after Thanksgiving is in many cases becoming strong or is simply a deviation caused by fewer people being tested due to the holidays.
More certain were the COVID-19-related hospitalizations that rose to 7559 nationwide – at 376 – and the 114 deaths that were to blame for the respiratory disease brought the death toll from the state to 29,629.