New Yorkers with comorbidities to become eligible for COVID-19 vaccine

New York will open up COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to those with “comorbidities” beginning Feb. 15, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday — though he wouldn’t say exactly which conditions would qualify.

Hospitals across the Empire State have been getting vaccine allocations sent to them directly since the vaccine efforts started in mid-December to get their employees jabbed.

After next week, all of those unused allocations will go to local health departments to inoculate New Yorkers with comorbidities, Cuomo explained during an Albany press briefing.

“They will start to reallocate the doses that were set aside for the hospital workers and we will give that allocation to the local health departments to give to people with comorbidities and that will start Feb. 15,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo noted that “94 percent of people who die with COVID are people with comorbidities or people with other underlying conditions.”

Cuomo said the state is still working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to decide exactly which underlying conditions will make someone eligible to get the coveted vaccine.

“We are working with the CDC to clarify some definitions, but we’re basically going to follow the CDC guidance,” he said.