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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that 57.9 percent of hospital workers in the Hudson Valley have received the COVID-19 vaccine, while statewide, a total of 60.8 percent of medical professionals have been vaccinated.
The percentage in the Hudson Valley is the lowest in the state, behind New York City (59 percent), Long Island (60 percent), Mohawk Valley (60.1 percent), and Western New York (63 percent).
Cuomo also made note that vaccination performance is uneven by region, with Hudson Valley hospitals having used 76 percent of the doses allocated to them, with only New York City (60 percent), and Finger Lakes (73 percent) administering fewer.
In the Hudson Valley, 28.5 percent of healthcare workers who have been offered the vaccine have declined, Cuomo noted, the highest amount in the state.
In total, 74 percent of the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine allocated to New York have been administered to healthcare workers, with all nursing home residents and employees expected to be vaccinated by the end of the weekend.
To reach critical mass, or “herd immunity,” Cuomo reminded the public that it will require between 70 percent and 90 percent to receive the vaccine, including the healthcare workers.
“There’s a great variance by region of healthcare staff that has been vaccinated,” he said. “There are highs and lows in the state, but no one wants to go to a hospital and be vaccinated by a nurse with COVID, so we have to do a better job when it comes to this.”
In the Hudson Valley, the top-performing distributors each used 100 percent of the first doses administered to them in the first three weeks of the program:
- Westchester County Department of Health;
- Putnam County Department of Health;
- St. Anthony Community Hospital;
- Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital;
- Ulster County Department of Health;
- Burke Rehabilitation Hospital;
- Northern Dutchess Hospital;
- Garnet Health Medical Center - Catskills;
- Rockland Psychiatric Center;
- Northern Westchester Hospital;
- Putnam Hospital;
- Andrus Pavilion;
- Phelps Memorial Hospital Association;
- St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital;
- Vassar Brothers Medical Center;
- Montefiore Nyack Hospital;
- Garnet Health Medical Center;
- White Plains Hospital;
- Good Samaritan Hospital;
- Westchester Medical Center;
- St. Joseph's Hospital.
Other distributors in the Hudson Valley have not performed as well:
- Kingston Family Health Center: 64 percent;
- Cornerstone Family Healthcare: 72 percent;
- NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley: 77 percent;
- Bon Secours Community Hospital: 86 percent;
- HealthAlliance Hospital Broadway Campus: 90 percent;
- NYP-Lawrence Hospital: 93 percent.
“The motto here in New York is that ‘life is in the doing,’” Cuomo stated. “We understand the concept, now we just have to get the needle in the arm.”
Hudson Valley hospitals with the highest percentage of employees vaccinated:
- Good Samaritan Hospital of Suffern: 87.6 percent;
- NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital: 86.8 percent;
- St. John's Riverside Hospital - Dobbs Ferry Pavilion: 77 percent;
- St. Anthony Community Hospital: 74.4 percent;
- Bon Secours Community Hospital: 70.6 percent;
- Mid-Hudson Valley Division of Westchester Medical Center: 69.9 percent;
- New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital: 68.1 percent;
- Ellenville Regional Hospital: 64 percent;
- Northern Dutchess Hospital: 61.9 percent;
- Winifred Masterson Burke Rehabilitation Center: 61.3 percent.
The hospitals in the Hudson Valley with the lowest percentage of employees vaccinated:
- Catskill Regional Medical Center: 42.7 percent;
- Putnam Hospital Center: 43.6 percent;
- Orange Regional Medical Center: 46.4 percent;
- Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital: 46.8 percent;
- Vassar Brothers Medical Center: 47.2 percent;
- St. Lukes Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh: 50.9 percent;
- Phelps Hospital: 51.5 percent;
- St. Josephs Medical Center: 53.4 percent;
- Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital: 54.5 percent;
- Healthalliance Hospital Broadway Campus: 54.7 percent.
Statewide, New York has administered a total of 827,715 - 731,285 first doses, 96,430 second doses - vaccines as the state ramps up its vaccination program after a slow initial rollout.
“There’s no such thing as a state number in this regard,” Cuomo said. “These numbers come to us from the facilities themselves, and these are numbers that are submitted under the penalty of perjury, so there are no discrepancies about the numbers.
“The point is that we have a lot of facilities and distributors, and we’re going to allocate doses to those doing it the quickest,” Cuomo continued. “We want to get the needles in the arm, and that’s what we want people to understand.”
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