NEW YORK (PIX11) — An estimated 48,000 deaths have been prevented since the city launched its vaccination campaign in December 2020, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said Friday.
He also said that New Yorkers getting their vaccinations averted over 300,000 hospitalizations and prevented more than 1.9 million cases. The estimated figures are from an updated analysis by Yale University epidemiologists and are supported by the Commonwealth Fund health department, Chokshi said.
Chokshi said that New Yorkers should mitigate the effects of “parallel pandemics” COVID-19 has aggravated, “from mental health, to chronic diseases to structural racism.”
At the press briefing, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the NYC school mask mandate and the Key2NYC vaccine mandate will be lifted on Monday. Adams also introduced a new color-coded alert system to inform New Yorkers what level of precaution they should take moving forward.
