COVID-19 vaccine

All healthcare workers in New York State, including staff at hospitals and long-term care facilities — nursing homes, adult care and other congregate care settings — will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Monday, Sept. 27, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday.

Since his transplant surgery five years ago, Ed Schaefer of Riverhead must take medication to prevent his body from rejecting his transplanted heart. Though he had both doses of the Moderna vaccine, he has no COVID antibodies because of his meds. That leaves him in a very vulnerable place as the virus surges anew.

COVID vaccinations plummeted in Suffolk from an average of more than 50,000 weekly doses in March and April to an average of just 10,000 weekly doses in July. The drop was not fo a lack of eligible arms and vaccination numbers are rising again.

Suffolk County has no plans to reinstate a mask mandate, officials said yesterday, despite the governor urging local governments to do so, as the highly infectious delta variant spreads and COVID infections and hospitalizations rise. Instead, the county will focus its efforts on increasing vaccination rates among residents.

Low vaccination rates deeply lower our odds to control, and in time defeat, the COVID-19 virus, Peconic Bay Medical Center Executive Director Amy Loeb argues, urging unvaccinated people to take the shot now.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo today left the door open for future state action, but he said policy-making responsibility rests with local governments and school districts in areas of substantial virus transmission to decide whether to implement the revised CDC guidance.

The new advisory, issued after the CDC announced revised guidance on mask-wearing yesterday, urges public health officials and clinicians to step up vaccination efforts. CDC said the 300% increase in COVID-19 infections over the past month is attributed to the spread of the highly infectious delta variant among unvaccinated people.

All New York State mass vaccination sites will be open for walk-in vaccinations as of Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today. Local health departments have the option to offer vaccines without appointments as of Thursday also, he said.

State and local health officials have paused administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after six women between the ages of 18 and 48 developed a rare blood clotting condition after receiving the vaccine. One woman died another is in critical condition.

Peconic Bay Medical Center vaccinated its first teenager Wednesday afternoon, college-bound Riverhead High School senior Imani Thomas.