Cuomo wants New York to buy vaccine from Pfizer

ALBANY, N.Y. (WSYR) — On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a briefing to update New Yorkers on the state’s response to COVID-19. During Monday’s briefing, the governor said he's in talks with Pfizer.

Echoing his own refrain that the federal government needs to increase supply of COVID-19 vaccination to states, Cuomo said he will ask them to let New York buy doses of the vaccine directly from the pharmaceutical company.

This as Cuomo has repeatedly urged the federal government to release more vaccination doses to the states. Last week, the CDC increased the number of people who are eligible for the vaccine. In New York State, that means over seven million people are eligible, but the state is still only receiving fewer than 300,000 doses a week. At this rate, it will take more than six months for those eligible in Phase 1A and Phase 2B to be vaccinated.

Cuomo also said that only 62.8% of hospital staff statewide have been vaccinated so far. That ranges greatly by region, and facility, across the state. Cuomo is worried that the lack of hospital staff being vaccinated could lead to a shortage of staff if there is a second wave of coronavirus.

Statewide, over one million doses of the vaccine have been given.

The state is currently running five vaccination sites, with eight more opening soon.

When it comes to the daily numbers, and hospitalization rates across the region, click through the slideshow below:

The slideshow below shows some slides from Cuomo's briefing that show the number of doses that have been allocated across the state: