| The Covid-19 vaccine line began with the elderly and health-care workers, the people at highest risk of serious cases and infections. Then New York state expanded vaccine eligibility to include public workers, teachers, and people 65 and older. Now, a new set may be added for vaccine priority. Restaurant workers and taxi drivers could become eligible to receive Covid-19 vaccines if local governments choose to include them, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Bagels and taxis are part of New York City's bedrock. One could argue that vaccination for restaurant workers and taxi drivers would constitute an important step toward restoring life as people there once knew it. Cuomo said he's directing local governments to make decisions about whether to add those groups, as well as residents of facilities for the developmentally disabled, to the so-called 1B eligible tier. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he supported including restaurant workers in the category. "The restaurant workers now are going to be in enclosed places with people eating and drinking. And every doctor on this line or any place else will say, that's an area of concern," de Blasio said in a Tuesday briefing. "Now that the state has made this decision, it follows that we have to protect those workers and they should be added to the 1B category."  A waitress wearing a face mask cleans a table. Photographer: Xinhua News Agency Last week, Cuomo announced a plan to reopen New York City's indoor dining on Feb. 14 to 25% capacity. He has also been asked to make those with health conditions eligible to receive the vaccine. Facing supply shortages, Cuomo has pushed back against requests to open up vaccines to even more groups of people. "Without a significant increase in the supply, it's all just posturing," Cuomo said. So far, the state has administered about 2 million vaccine doses for about 7 million eligible residents. Expanding eligibility to the immuno-compromised would add another 4 million in a state that's getting about 300,000 doses a week from the federal government, Cuomo said. Cuomo said the Biden administration told governors on Tuesday that the state's vaccine allocation will rise by another 5% over the next three weeks, on top of a previous boost of about 16%. The federal government also told governors during a call earlier Tuesday that they would give an additional 10% of the states' allocation to pharmacies, which will result in another 30,000 doses for those in New York, Cuomo said. New York's Covid numbers continue to improve, the governor said. The state's seven-day average rate of positive tests is below 5% for the first time since early December, Cuomo said. Now if we could just get the cabs and pastrami sandwiches moving again, things would really be looking up.—Stacie Sherman | 
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