NY Newsday: NYS Urges Nursing Homes To Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

NYS Urges Nursing Homes To Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

By Robert Brodsky (Robert.brodsky@newsday.com)

Updated October 30, 2025 9:07 pm

Less than half of New York's nearly 100,000 largely elderly and disabled nursing home residents are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the state Health Department, which is urging facilities to boost their rates.

But advocates for the nursing home industry contend the figure is no reason for concern, citing the declining lethality of the virus and that New York's numbers actually greatly exceed the national average for COVID-19 vaccination rates at nursing homes.

Of the 98,871 nursing home residents across the state, 46% — or 45,192 — are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations for the 2025-26 season, including nearly 5,000 doses administered in the past seven days, according to department figures for October. That's down from 58% in April, officials said.

Another 4,869 nursing home residents are awaiting their next dose of the vaccine or COVID-19 booster, department figures show.

"Nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable to severe illness and death from COVID-19" said state Health Commissioner James McDonald. "Nursing homes are required to offer the vaccine to residents, and it is up to them and their families if they accept it. Clearly, the benefit of immunization outweighs the risk."

On Long Island, 48% of Nassau nursing home residents are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccination, while the number in Suffolk is 46%, department officials said.

Meanwhile, agency figures show almost 15% of Long Islanders ages 75 and older, and just over 10% of residents ages 65-74 are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations. Both numbers are well below the state averages for those age groups.

Among all age groups, the vaccination rate in both Nassau and Suffolk counties is 3.5%, Health Department figures show.

Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, an advocacy group for elder care residents, called the latest vaccination numbers "disturbing. If it is that low among nursing home residents, I shudder to think what the rates are among assisted living residents, a situation in which there is even greater vulnerability due to virtually nonexistent requirements for clinical safeguards and care staff licensure."

On Wednesday, Douglas Fish, deputy commissioner in the department's Office of Health Care Delivery, wrote to the administrators of the state's nearly 600 nursing homes, emphasizing the importance of offering the most updated COVID, influenza and RSV vaccines to residents and staff.

Stephen Hanse, president and chief executive of the New York State Health Facilities Association, which represents the nursing home industry, calls the 46% figure a "positive number," compared with the 30% of residents up to date with their COVID-19 vaccine at nursing homes nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"In a perfect world, we would love 100% vaccination rate," Hanse said. " ... We're always encouraging our residents and our staff. But at the same time, we face those that are reluctant. So I think it just requires continued education, continued initiatives and campaigns to keep working on increasing that percentage."

Michael Balboni, a former state senator from Nassau who serves as the executive director of the Greater New York Health Care Facilities Association, which also represents nursing homes, said a sense of "vaccine fatigue" has set in among residents of long-term care facilities.

"The initial COVID emergency was predicated upon a real threat of mortality, especially for the elderly," said Balboni, adding there's been no spike of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes in recent years. "Nobody perceives that anymore. People are getting COVID, but they're not getting really sick; not being hospitalized."

COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations are down dramatically from the height of the pandemic, when more than 13,000 nursing home residents died from the virus in New York between March 2020 and February 2021, according to department figures.

But while the virus has continued to mutate, lessening its severity, there were still 349 COVID-related deaths in 2024 among nursing home residents, who typically have comorbidities and weakened immune systems, the department said.

On Long Island, weekly COVID-19 deaths peaked during the past 12 months in mid-January with 14 fatalities, according to department figures.

Most weeks, however, the number of COVID-19 deaths during the past year were below 10 and in many cases at three or lower on the Island, the data shows.

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