'Not Safe Yet,' Despite Cuomo Lifting COVID-19 Emergency

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — There is plenty of reason to be happy with vaccination rates eclipsing 70 percent in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo took that moment to lift the emergency COVID-19 restrictions as of June 24, and New Yorkers are allowing themselves the chance to get "back to normal" for the first time in 18 months.

But Dr. Shan Ahmed, chief medical officer at Catholic Health's Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, is keeping a more cautious tone.

"It's a safer period of time," Ahmed said. "But we are still not safe yet."

While people are more inclined to remove the mask and gather in larger groups, Ahmed has been seeing the impact of the pandemic at his hospital, including cardiac arrest patients from COVID-19.

A concern for Ahmed is that vaccinated people are still potential carriers and removing the mask could be spreading the virus.

"The unvaccinated think the vaccinated are completely safe. They're not. They're safer, but they're not safe yet," he said.

While New York has one of the best vaccination rates in the country, there is room for improvement and with it less apprehension about COVID-19 cases in the future.

"It's certainly something we should do," Ahmed said. "It will certainly also affect even the small amount that are getting infected right now."

Cases are still up nationally, including the new Delta variant, but that is not the situation on Long Island.

A hugely promising note for Mercy Hospital, they've gone two days without admitting a COVID-19 patient or having related deaths. Another accomplishment for the health facility, no one on the staff is dealing with a COVID-19 quarantine.

"For people getting vaccinated, people social distancing, people keeping good hand hygiene, that's a testament to that," Ahmed said.

There has been talk about a possible surge later in the year as the COVID-19 blueprint is not completely understood. However, since it has spiked at times throughout the year, Ahmed doesn't think it's seasonally spread like influenza.

"This infection hits you more when you congregate and you are close to each other," he said. "It spreads easier than some other infections that we've known."

Requiring a vaccine booster shot at some point is being evaluated as it remains to be determined how long antibodies protect, so "it's too soon to know what's what," Ahmed said, who does anticipate there will be a scheduled add-on shot.