A New Yorker receives a COVID-19 vaccine Feb. 8, at a state vaccination site at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Manhattan. (Provided photo — governor's office)

Vaccine eligibility requirements expanded to include a new swath of the population on Sunday. The Essex County Health Department has scheduled a vaccine clinic in the southern end of the county this week, and Franklin County Public Health is piecing together its vaccine distribution plan.

Those with comorbidities and underlying health conditions are now eligible to get vaccinated. That includes those with cancer or those in remission, chronic kidney disease, a pulmonary disease, intellectual and developmental disabilities, heart conditions, those who are immunocompromised, those who are pregnant, those who are obese or severely obese, those with a sickle cell disease or thalassemia, those with diabetes, a cerebrovascular disease, liver disease, and those with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s or dementia. People in that segment of the population were able to set up an appointment starting on Sunday, though not everybody was able to schedule an appointment.

“Individuals who have one of these conditions will need to verify their eligibility to receive the vaccine by signing a letter of attestation at Essex County Health Department clinics,” county Public Health Director Linda Beers said in a statement.

A doctor’s letter is not necessary to get vaccinated, according to Franklin County Public Health.

The Essex County Health Department has been prepared to move forward with staging vaccine clinics across the county for some time. It’s something the department has done many times before, including when it vaccinated people against the H1N1 flu virus in 2009 and 2010, and when it vaccinates pets against rabies.

This week, the department’s staff will hold a vaccine clinic at the Moriah Central School District. The department is expected to receive 200 vaccine doses this week, according to Beers, and the department plans to use all of those doses. One hundred of them will be administered to eligible essential workers, and 100 will be administered to those with comorbidities.

Essential workers are asked to bring an employee ID card, a letter from an employer or affiliated organization, or a pay stub to their appointment. A driver’s license, passport or any legal proof of date of birth and residency is also required, according to the health department.

The department is looking at “future collaboration with our neighboring counties,” according to Beers.

“We are meeting this week to do a joint POD (vaccine clinic) with Franklin County at North Country Community College,” Beers said Monday.

Franklin County Manager Donna Kissane said Franklin County officials are meeting on Tuesday to develop the county’s vaccine distribution plan. Franklin County is also expected to receive 200 doses this week: 100 for essential workers and 100 for others.

Both the Essex and Franklin County health departments continue to be delivered fewer doses of the coronavirus vaccine each week than they’ve requested. Vaccine appointments at pharmacies continue to fill up fast. Some locals willing to travel to Plattsburgh or Potsdam to get vaccinated at one of the state Department of Health’s vaccine clinics have reported not being able to get an appointment until April, or not being able to get an appointment at all.

Even as the state expands eligibility requirements to include more people, the supply of vaccines — which is largely controlled by the federal government — continues to fall far behind the demand.

Public health experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joseph Biden’s chief infectious disease advisor, have said that to achieve herd immunity against the virus, upward of 90% of the population will need to get vaccinated, the New York Times reported.

As of Sunday — three months after the first vaccine dose in the U.S. was delivered to a New York nurse — about 4.2% of this country’s population had been fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 11.5% of the population has received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

According to the state Department of Health, as of Monday, more than 1.9 million of 19.4 million total New Yorkers had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Fewer than 1 million New Yorkers have been fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, about 85% of the total vaccine doses delivered to this state have already been administered. In the North Country region, 94% of vaccines delivered here had already been administered as of Monday, a higher percentage than any other region, though the North Country has so far received the fewest doses among the state’s regions — 104,517 doses, total, since December.

Franklin County hasn’t provided county-level vaccination data, but as of this past Friday, Essex County reported that 7,903 county residents had received a coronavirus vaccine. About 15.9% of the county’s population has received a first dose, and 5.4% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

There were 287 active cases of COVID-19 in Franklin County as of Monday, and 56 active cases in Essex County as of this past Friday, the latest report available by press time Monday. Franklin County’s sole nursing home outbreak at the Alice Center senior home has now been resolved — Alice Hyde spokesman Phillip Rau confirmed on Monday that there are no longer any active positive cases there. Essex County’s elder care facility outbreak at the Champlain Valley Senior Community in Willsboro is ongoing, and the outbreak continues to take the lives of residents there. The latest death of a resident was reported this past Friday, bringing the total number of deaths countywide to 25.

New Yorkers can visit https://am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov or call 1-833-697-4829 to find out whether they’re eligible and to schedule an appointment at a state-run vaccine site. Those who are over the age of 65 can also check in with pharmacies directly to try to schedule an appointment, or to sign up to be notified when an appointment becomes available.