New York City reached a major milestone in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday with three-quarters of adults now inoculated against the deadly bug.
“Today for the first time 75 percent of all adults have received at least one dose,” said Dr. Ted Long, head of the city’s COVID-19 Test & Trace Corps, at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily press briefing.
The national average is 72.2 percent. And 56 percent of 12- to 17 year-olds in the city have gotten the shot.
“I expect that number to go up very, very substantially,” de Blasio said.
The FDA has not yet approved the vaccine for children under 12.
The city will not require children to be vaccinated in order to attend school this fall, but the mayor is discussing a potential vaccine requirement for staff with the teachers union and other staff unions.
“There’s nothing that’s been decided,” de Blasio said.
Long added that the city has 750,000 doses on hand, and can order more at any point. That number is sufficient to administer booster shots to New Yorkers in September, he said.
De Blasio has said the vaccination rate — which has climbed by 5 percent over the past month — continues to increase due to a combination of incentives like the $100 giveaway, various local mandates and fear of the contagious Delta variant.