The newly updated coronavirus vaccine is now available in New York state.
With the weather turning, and respiratory illness season ahead, officials expect an Uptick in coronavirus cases in the state. Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald signed an order that allows New Yorkers to receive the new vaccine at any pharmacy in the state without a prescription.
"Our vaccine numbers at a little over 12 percent, really are not that high. And I think we need to look in the mirror and say regardless of what we have heard or what we thought, if you haven't thought about a COVID vaccine recently, I highly encourage people to do that."
He points to studies that show the vaccine resulted in a greater chance at preventing COVID related deaths and hospitalizations. There were 35-hundred COVID related deaths in New York State last year and around 73 thousand hospitalizations