Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state will be sending COVID-19 vaccines straight to colleges and universities across New York to encourage college students to get vaccinated before heading home for the summer.

“The 18-to-24 population is a population that is growing in positivity,” Cuomo said during a closed press event at Suffolk County Community College. “We have them in schools; let's use the schools as the base for the vaccine. Makes all the sense in the world. We have the staff at the school, we have the students at this school. Let's vaccinate them at the schools.”

Last week, the state opened up its vaccine eligibility to all New Yorkers 16 and older. Cuomo warned, however, that due to variants growing throughout the state, New York’s COVID-19 positivity rate is back to where it was in November.

“We will be giving direct allocations to schools, colleges, universities, so they can vaccinate their students in their facilities,” Cuomo said “Let's stamp this beast to death while we can.”

“It is absolutely critical, it is timely and this will be the thing that ultimately allows us to say that we have defeated this virus,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said during the press conference, “that we have moved beyond the pandemic and we are fully recovering and building back stronger and better than ever before.”

Earlier this month, State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras announced that the SUNY system would be making the COVID-19 vaccine available to all its students before heading home. More than 18,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were distributed to 34 SUNY campuses last week when eligibility expanded statewide.

Right now, there is no mandate that students must be vaccinated before returning to SUNY campuses in the fall.