The list of who can receive the COVID-19 vaccine is expanding.
New York state will be getting another 259,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses this week. There will be 139,400 from Pfizer and 119,600 from Moderna
Initially, hospital workers were the first to receive the vaccine. Next on the priority list are urgent care employees. Lines at urgent care facilities across the Island during the pandemic have been lengthy as patients wait to be tested.
Dr. Robert Levy works at AFC Urgent Care. He says they're still seeing dozens of COVID-19 patients a day and the majority of his 100 employees do want to get the vaccine. He's expecting a few hundred doses of the Moderna vaccine sometime this week.
"You had to already be cleared by the state to give the vaccine. We had to give significant detailed information— which freezers are we using, what brand, how much can we store in our freezer, how much can we administer on a daily and weekly basis, who can we administer it to and who works for us," Levy says.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced local health department employees and residents of state-run addiction service facilities are also included in this next group.
"We'll then continue with high risk hospital care workers, federally qualified health center employees, EMS workers... Coroners, medical examiners, funeral home workers," Gov. Cuomo said.
The state says so far, 140,000 people have been vaccinated with the first dose.
Next week, the state says it expects to add ambulatory care workers and public-facing public health workers to the list of people who can get vaccinated.