COVID Positivity Declines, Vaccinations Gain Momentum: Hitting a Record High

   Mayor Bill de Blasio has long talked about his goal of vaccinating 500,000 or more New Yorkers a week, and on Friday, when the city gave out 76,024 shots: a record high, the mayor showed he is well on his way to meeting his goal.

  “If we could do that in a single day: do the math times seven, and we are right on pace to do half a million or more per week,” said Mayor de Blasio who repeated his goal to fully vaccinate 5 million fully New Yorkers by June, when he spoke today at a pop-up vaccination site in Harlem.

   Gov. Andrew Cuomo also announced today that the statewide vaccination program has also significantly gained momentum, as 157,046 doses were given out in the previous 24 hours.

   Out of the 4,996,800 vaccinations the that has received, the governor said that that state has administered 4,327,468 doses of them. 

   Other good news today is that that the number of New Yorkers who are hospitalized with COVID-19 has hit the lowest level since Dec. 12, and the number continues to drop.

   In addition, New York state’s seven-day average positivity rate dropped to 3.18%, which is the lowest it has been since Nov. 26. The daily positivity rate Friday was 2.85%, which showed just a slight increase from Thursday.

    New York City’s seven-day positivity rate stood at 4.08% on Friday, when 85 New Yorkers statewide passed away from the coronavirus.

 Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office