Vax push speeds up shots in N.Y.

ALBANY — Vaccinations are picking up pace in New York days after Gov. Cuomo threatened to fine slow-moving hospitals and warned that a highly contagious new COVID variant could cause trouble in the Empire State.

The governor said Wednesday that the daily vaccination rate in New York hospitals tripled over the past three days from an average of 10,809 shots a day in recent weeks to 31,157 since Monday.

Cuomo cautioned that even with the uptick, it will take time to inoculate the 2.1 million health care workers, nursing home residents and others who are currently eligible to receive doses. The state is currently only receiving 300,000 doses a week from the federal government.

Getting vaccines to the 6.3 million people who will become eligible as part of the second doses could take even longer.

“That’s over 6 million people in 1B, you’re getting 300,000 dosages per week, it takes a long time,” he said during a briefing in Albany.

The governor also raised alarms about a mutated coronavirus variant that was recently found in Saratoga County earlier this week, saying that the state is renewing its push to have international travelers tested before flying into New York.

The strain was first discovered in the United Kingdom.

“As governor, I do not have the legal authority to say international travelers must test negative,” Cuomo said. “We don’t want tens of thousands of people coming into our airports every day from countries around the world who were not tested.”

Cuomo sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf asking him to require airline travelers to the United States receive a negative COVID-19 test result before being allowed into the country.

The federal government currently requires travelers from the U.K. to receive a negative test result, but the U.K. variant of COVID-19 has spread to more than 30 other countries.

Coronavirus cases continue to rise across the state, which reported an 8.4% positivity rate on Tuesday.

Hospitalizations also rose with 8,665 people being treated for the virus and 1,408 in intensive care units. Another 161 New Yorkers died of COVID on Tuesday, according to state data.