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ALBANY – Restaurant workers and for-hire drivers in New York State may soon be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
During an announcement on Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo says he is leaving the decision up to counties if those workers should be added to the list of those eligible.
If counties take the governor up on his offer, that would mean another major expansion of eligibility rules, even as New York struggles with an extremely limited supply of shots.
“If they want to add developmentally disabled facilities, if they want to add taxi drivers, Uber drivers, restaurant workers, they can do that if they think it works within their prioritization locally,” said Cuomo. “In other words, some localities have already done a large percentage of their police, their fire, their teachers and they do have flexibility. There is no one size fits all here.”
He says the federal government is signaling it will send New York 20 percent more doses for the next three weeks, meaning more doses for counties.
His administration didn’t release details on how many more doses it’ll send to counties.
Many New Yorkers have faced cancelled vaccine appointments over the past month, with county leaders saying they received fewer doses from Cuomo’s administration than expected.
The restaurant industry, which has pushed to reopen indoor dining in the city, applauded Cuomo’s announcement.
Chautauqua County has not yet specified if those fields would be included on the list.
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