N.Y.ers won’t ‘pay a penny’ for the COVID vaccine, Cuomo vows

ALBANY — New York is readying a regional plan for COVID vaccine distribution as Gov. Cuomo vowed no one in the state will “pay a penny” to get inoculated against the deadly virus.

The governor said Wednesday that as the state prepares to expand immunization efforts against coronavirus, the state Department Financial Services Department will order all insurers to cover any costs associated with the vaccine.

“We want people to get vaccinated,” Cuomo said during a remote briefing in Albany. “It shouldn’t be about wealth. No one will pay a penny.”

The first phase of the state’s vaccine plan began this week, with health care workers as well as residents and staff at nursing homes receiving doses of the federally approved Pfizer vaccine.

The state has so far received nearly 90,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, with more than 4,000 people already inoculated.

As more doses arrive and a wider swath of high-risk members of the general public and essential workers become eligible in late January, regional hospitals will be tasked with overseeing the second phase of distribution, Cuomo said.

“As the vaccinations go up, COVID will come down,” the governor said. “It’s just a question of logistics and supply and making it happen.”

Hospital capacity remains a concern as cases continue to rise across the state, with more than 6,000 New Yorkers currently being treated for COVID-19 in state medical facilities. Of those, 1,098 are in intensive care units.

Another 95 people died from the virus on Tuesday, Cuomo said.

As the state’s positivity rate rose to 6.21% out of 160,947 tests reported, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker sent a letter to hospitals instructing them to expand capacity as part of the state’s “surge and flex” model.

Cuomo said hospitals have to switch to “crisis management mode,” especially in upstate areas like the Finger Lakes region, where the hospitalization rate is the highest in New York.

As Mayor de Blasio warned that a shutdown of nonessential businesses could come as soon as the end of the month, the governor said he isn’t willing to say that such action is inevitable just yet.

“If New Yorkers are responsible and hospitals step up their game, we may not have a shutdown,” he said.