Recovering addicts in drug addiction centers will be among those vaccinated against the coronavirus this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed obliquely Monday.
At a virtual press conference in Albany, Cuomo said the state expected to receive a combined 259,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
In addition to employees of emergency care centers and “individuals administering the COVID-19 vaccines, for obvious reasons,” Cuomo said injections would be given to residents of “OASAS” – the state bureau of addiction care and support.
The agency has 12 treatment centers across the state, five of which are located in or around New York City, and also certifies and audits “hundreds” of private facilities, according to its website.
“These are communal facilities. Community facilities are problematic. That’s where you have a lot of people in concentration, ”said Cuomo.
Nursing homes are clearly the most problematic because they congregate and older, vulnerable people. OASAS facilities, what we call the O facilities, they have come together – not necessarily older – but communal facilities. “
Residents and staff will be vaccinated at both state-run and private rehabilitation centers, as well as facilities managed or recognized by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health, the State Department of Health said.
Emergency medical workers, medical examiners and coroners and some funeral staff will also be shot, a DOH spokeswoman said.
Luke Nasta, a director of the New York Association of Substance Abuse Providers, said the nonprofit had lobbied for rehab patients to get vaccinations.
Nasta, CEO of the Camelot Family Foundation – which runs two residential treatment centers on Staten Island – said it made sense to inject drug users because they were most likely to “get and spread the disease.”
“We were initially overlooked. We caught the attention of the governor and governor Cuomo acted appropriately, ”he said.
Meanwhile, the percentage of New Yorkers who tested positive for coronavirus rose from 5.8 percent to 8.3 percent over the three-day Christmas weekend, Cuomo said.
The spike could show that a post-Thanksgiving wave is gaining momentum in cases or just an anomaly caused by fewer people being tested for the holidays, he said.
More certain were COVID-19-related hospital admissions which rose to 7,559 statewide – an increase from 376 – and the 114 fatalities attributable to the respiratory disease, bringing the state death toll to 29,629.