New York governor declares victory on COVID-19

Photo By Mark Getman | Cassie Huang, 28, of Manhattan, NY, speaks to New York Army National Col Michael Bice, Joint Task Force Javits Incident Commander after she received her first Pfizer vaccination. She received the 500,000th vaccine administered at the Javits Center. Huang received the vaccine from Nurse Raquel Calderon, on April 26, 2021. This marks the 500,000-vaccine administered at the Jacob Javits Center mass vaccination site. The New York State Department of Health vaccination efforts for New York residents began January 13, 2021 at the Javits Vaccination Site. Over 3,180 members of the New York Army and Air National Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the New York Guard are supporting the multi-agency response to COVID-19 at 24 vaccination sites and other locations across New York. (New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs photos by New York Guard Captain Mark Getman)  

NEW YORK , NY, UNITED STATES

06.17.2021

Story by Eric Durr 

New York National Guard

NEW YORK –- As Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced an end to most COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on June 15, New York National Guard leaders began planning to downsize the 2,900 service member force on the COVID-19 mission.

“This is a momentous day and we deserve it because it has been a long, long road, and it's a day to look backwards, remember where we were, but also to look forward and where we're going,” the governor said during a New York City event.

Cuomo recognized the men and women of the New York National Guard for the efforts in coping with the pandemic.

Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general, accepted an award from the governor on behalf of the service members and civilians.

The governor asked him to pass along that message, Shields said in an email to New York National Guard leaders.

“We would not be in this position today without the efforts of all our military service members and civilian employees. DMNA and the state's military forces have played a key role in the state's COVID response efforts,” Shields said.

As of June 15, the New York National Guard was staffing 28 vaccination sites across the state with 1,781 personnel. This included three sites formerly run by FEMA and active Navy and Air Force personnel in Brooklyn, Queens and Yonkers which were taken over in mid-May.

Between Feb. 24 and May 19 the Medgar Evers College site administered 215,570 vaccine does, while the York College location administered 223,927 shots. The Yonkers site administered 70,071 vaccinations as of late May.

Since the vaccination mission began in January, National Guard personnel have supported 3,734,220 vaccinations through June 15. New York National Guard medical personnel administered 108,707 of those shots.
According to the New York State Department of Health, a total of 20,296,035 vaccinations have been given in New York and over 9.94 million state residents are totally vaccinated, as of June 16.

Along with running vaccination sites, the 2,294 New York military personnel on mission duties on June 15 continued staffing 15 testing sites, assemble and ship COVID-19 test kits around New York and conduct logistics support missions.

The state, though, had already announced plans to eliminate those drive-thru sites, including the first one at Glenn Island Park in Westchester which was established in March of 2020.

Since March 8, 2020, a total of 6,394 New York National Guard members have served on the COVID-19 mission.

On May 13, the New York National Guard reported that service members had spent 1,000,000 man days supporting the state COVID-19 response.
As of June 15 the New York National Guard also:

• Assisted in collecting 1,664,013 COVID-19 tests at 15 locations
• Assembled 12,534,154 COVID-19 test kits
• Received 57,389 pallets of goods and distributed 27,055 pallets from six warehouse locations
• Conducted 12,655 mobile lab COVID-19 tests
• Providing access control at nine locations.

Completed missions include:

• Screening 3,074,048 passengers for health information at 12 airports
• Distributing 112,707 gallons of hand sanitizer
• Processing 278,162 phone calls for the Department of Health and NYC Veterans Services
• Preparing 444,987 meals for needy resident
• Distributing 54,899,025 meals (Most in NYC)
• Cleaning 907,000 square feet of facility space at 22 Locations
• Collecting 14,269 COVID antibody tests
• Conducting the dignified recovery of 2,882 New Yorkers who died during the crisis
• Assisted in providing medical treatment for 1,095 patients at the Javits Convention

• Date Taken: 06.17.2021
• Date Posted: 06.17.2021 13:10
• Story ID: 399187
• Location: NEW YORK , NY, US