COVID-19 vaccine eligibility expands to 16 and over in NY

The new vaccination rules add 1.7 million people to the list of eligible New Yorkers, for a total of 15.9 million individuals, state Health Department officials said.

News 12 Staff

Apr 6, 2021, 9:59 AM

Updated 1,337 days ago

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New Yorkers over 16 years old can sign up for COVID-19 vaccinations starting today, a major expansion of eligibility as the state seeks to immunize as many people as possible.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo expanded eligibility to 30 and over last week and announced that people aged 16 to 29 would be eligible starting April 6.
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VACCINE INFORMATION: What you need to know
Teens aged 16 and 17 will be limited to receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, since that is the only one that has been authorized for use by people under 18. Parental consent will be required for vaccinations of 16- and 17-year-olds, with certain exceptions including for teens who are married or are parents.
None of the available vaccines have yet been approved for people under 16.
The New York State “Am I Eligible” website has a listing of all the state-run vaccination sites which all administer the Pfizer vaccine. The closest sites for teens in the Hudson Valley are the National Guard armory in Yonkers, the Westchester County Center in White Plains, the newly opened site at Rockland Community College in Suffern, and Orange County Community College in Middletown.
About one in five New York state residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Monday, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A little more than one-third of the state's residents had received at least one vaccine dose.
The new vaccination rules add 1.7 million people to the list of eligible New Yorkers, for a total of 15.9 million individuals, state Health Department officials said.
AP wires were used in this report