US: New York lowers minimum vaccination age to 50

ANKARA

New York is lowering the minimum age for COVID-19 vaccination to 50, the governor said Monday.

"Tomorrow morning 50 and above, make your appointment and get your vaccine. We are now in a new season. We are in the season of the spring, and the spring says it’s a time for renewal, rebirth and you can feel it in the air," Andrew Cuomo said during an appearance at Grace Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon.

New York has the second-highest number of deaths among US states with over 49,000 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Cuomo has been accused of misrepresenting COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes in the state as well as a separate scandal over alleged sexual harassment.

While the US has seen over 542,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the number of cases in the country since around a year ago totals almost 30 million.

While Cuomo got a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem, the FBI and the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn last month started to investigate the nursing home scandal.

Cuomo last year promised to make "a special effort" to protect such homes.

Out of 156 million distributed doses of vaccines in the US, 126 million have been administered as of early Monday, but fewer than 45 million people, or 13.5% of the total population, have gotten two doses, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.