Coronavirus Update, April 6, 2021
The New York State Department of Health has now approved Tompkins county’s three colleges as sites for vaccination distribution. Cornell, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College have not yet heard when they will receive the vaccines.
Tompkins County spokesperson Dominick Recckio told The Ithaca Voice that the county has not received notifications as to how to proceed with setting up vaccine clinics at the colleges. Further, the colleges have not indicated whether they would give the shots to the general public or just their students.
As of yet, there are no state-run vaccination clinics in Tompkins. The Voice reports that thousands of county residents have driven to state vaccine clinic sites in Syracuse and Binghamton.
Today, New York State opens up COVID vaccine availability to those individuals age 16 and older. Yet, a CDC report published Sunday shows that the state lags far behind most of the nation in its vaccination rate for people age 65 and older.
According to the CDC report, New York reached just 67% of that population, just below the nation average of 70%, reports the Ithaca Journal.
New York ranks 24th in the nation for the rate of vaccination of those aged 18 and older, and 9th in the nation for the population between ages 18 and 65. Overall, about 33% of the population had received at least one vaccination as of Sunday.
The CDC statistics indicate that New York’s vaccination policies and procedures favor those in younger age ranges.
Tompkins county is reporting 6 new positive cases today with a total of 113 active cases. This data reflects a downward trend in active cases following a peak of 201 last Friday. Schuyler county is reporting 5 new cases of COVID with 27 active cases total. There are 5 individuals hospitalized with COVID in Schuyler.