Updated Industry Re-Opening Guidance Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced guidance to begin re-opening additional sectors of the economy, as New York State's hospitalization and COVID-19 infection rates continue to decline.  Beginning March 5th, movie theaters in New York City (as well as theaters that have been closed in any remaining parts of the State) and billiard halls statewide will be permitted to re-open.  Furthermore, beginning March 15th, weddings and catered events can resume statewide.   Specific guidance is as follows:   [...]

Vaccination Sites Today, Governor Cuomo announced the State will add 13 additional pop-up vaccination sites that will vaccinate an estimated 3,850 people each week and will be re-established in three weeks to administer second doses.   The new pop-up will be located in the follow regions: New York City – 5 Long Island – 1 Hudson Valley – 2 Capital Region – 1 Western New York – 1 Finger Lakes – 1 Central NY – 1 Southern Tier – 1   [...]

New Vaccination Eligibility Begins on Sunday, February 14 Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced that New Yorkers with comorbidities and underlying conditions can make appointments at State-run mass vaccination sites beginning Sunday, February 14th.  The first of these appointments can be scheduled for Monday, February 15th. Local health departments will determine how, where and when to schedule appointments in their jurisdictions. The Governor stipulated that no local jurisdiction should accept appointments until vaccine allocations are known, and no earlier than February 14th.   To [...]

Letter to Hospitals from Dept. Of Health Commissioner Today New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker published a letter to all hospital administrators in the State to shift to crisis management mode. By entering into the crisis management mode, hospitals must balance patient load within their system. If they are an independent hospital, they must form a local partnership with neighboring hospitals to enable local patient load balancing. In addition, hospitals must be prepared to reach 15% staffed bed capacity growth [...]

Yellow Zone Expansion Early this afternoon during his press conference Governor Cuomo indicated that there had been no change in the State’s red or orange zones, but that there had been an expansion of several yellow zones. A yellow zone is defined as having a 3% positivity rate (7-day average) over the past 10 days and is in the top 10% in the State for hospital admissions per capita over the past week, and is experiencing week-over-week growth in daily admissions. [...]