CDC: 70% of NY adults have had at least 1 vaccine shot
An Air Force medical unit staff member gives a COVID vaccine shot to a Brooklyn resident at Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights, N.Y., Feb. 24, 2021. (Governor's Press Office)
NEW YORK - A few hours after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state was on the cusp of the vaccination benchmark needed to lift almost all remaining pandemic restrictions, the federal government said New York had reached that mark.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID vaccine tracker states that 70% of adult New Yorkers have received at least one vaccine dose. (The tracker is updated no later than 8 p.m. daily.)
Earlier in the day at his pandemic briefing, Cuomo said the statewide at-least-one-dose vaccination rate for adults was at 69.9% and that New York was approaching a "post-COVID future at an incredible pace."
"A year ago, it was unfathomable to think we'd be at this point today," Cuomo said in a statement. "As we approach our goal of 70% of New Yorkers with at least one dose of their vaccine, we also reflect on all we've been through. New York is the greatest state in the nation and New Yorkers have shown that they are a true force to be reckoned with."
The governor's office has not yet confirmed the CDC's latest data. In fact, the state's own vaccine tracker shows 67.4% for that category.
Cuomo said that when 70% of adult New Yorkers have had at least one shot, most restrictions would end but that doesn't mean the pandemic is over or that vaccinations should stop.
"It means it's working. It means we're doing well, but it also means keep going. And that's what the celebration is going to be," Cuomo said on Monday. "It's not the finish line at 70[%], but we're coming around the last turn on the track and we have to focus and we have to know that we're doing well."
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