Health care workers and nursing home residents and staff members form what is called Phase 1 of New York Stateâs vaccine distribution plan. About two million people are in this group, and the stateâs initial allocation of the vaccine most likely means that Phase 2, which includes essential workers, wonât begin until late January. (Widespread distribution isnât likely to begin until the summer, officials have said.)
But the state has left it mostly to each health care institution to devise a vaccination plan during the first phase. In the first week of vaccinations, many hospitals chose a wide variety of health care workers â nurses, doctors, housekeepers â from emergency rooms and intensive care units to be the first at their institutions to receive the vaccine. But in the days after the celebrations accompanying the first shots, the moods at hospitals have shifted.