New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, along with his daughter Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, arrives at an event at the new Settlement Community Center in the Bronx borough of New York, Friday, March 26, 2021. (Carlo Allegri/Pool Photo via AP)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state residents over 30 will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations starting Tuesday, and everyone over 16 will be eligible starting April 6, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.

A judge's ruling later in the day widened the eligible pool even further, with a decision saying the state immediately had to offer vaccinations to its entire population of incarcerated people.

Vaccine eligibility had previously been restricted to people over 50, people in certain job categories and those with health conditions that put them at risk for serious illness if they were to become infected with the coronavirus. Previously, 12.2 million out of over 15 million New Yorkers over the age of 16 were eligible for COVID-19 vaccination as of last week.

People over the age of 30 can begin booking appointments at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.

"Today we take a monumental step forward in the fight to beat COVID," the Democratic governor said in a news release, adding that the new timetable was "well ahead of the May 1 deadline set by the White House."

In the legal ruling, State Supreme Court Justice Alison Tuitt in the Bronx addressed how all incarcerated New Yorkers were not included in the earlier categories of those eligible, even as those in other group settings were.