Matt Driffill and Olivia Doerr report for RochesterFirst.com that Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York will spend $15 million targeting anyone who has not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine through community-based organizations in zip codes state with low vaccination rates. “We see the COVID numbers and we see the reality, and we know what we have to do,” Cuomo said. “3.5 million unvaccinated people.... These numbers can be hard to put into context, but 3.5 million is larger than 21 other states’ total population. We have an unvaccinated population larger than the entire population of 21 states, and then when you put this COVID delta variant — which is transmitted much easier than the normal COVID virus — you put that variant with 3.5 million people, that spells ‘spread of COVID.’ That is what is happening. We know that’s what’s happening, we see it in the numbers, and numbers don’t lie.” The non-profits that are getting the funds include the Hispanic Federation, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, the New York Immigration Coalition, and the Asian American Federation, Charles B. Wang Community Center, and APICHA Community Health Center. Locally, 53.8 percent of people in Greene County have received at least one vaccine dose, and 61.5 percent of Columbia County residents have gotten at least one dose. New vaccinations have slowed lately, and now health experts are calling the current crisis a "pandemic of the unvaccinated," as the more contagious Delta variant of the virus has created rising infection rates. Read more about this story at RochesterFirst.com.