Officials are joining forces with health care workers in Orange County on National Nurses Day to address vaccine hesitancy in the county.

Coronavirus rates are drastically dropping nationwide, and much of that is attributed to the vaccine. The problem is that not everyone is on board to get it.

"Now is the time to put this virus to bed and win this race once and for all," said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.

Rep. Maloney held a news conference outside Montefiore St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh Thursday on his second stop along his 'vaccine awareness tour.'

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus was also there and said the county has gone from administering thousands of vaccines a day to practically nothing.

"What I'm doing now a day – one to two-hundred. Can't get anyone to sign up," said Neuhaus. "It's getting less and less to the point where Orange County government is no longer requesting doses because I'm sitting on a couple thousand right now."

Neuhaus says 39% of Orange County residents have been vaccinated -- and experts say 70% is needed for herd immunity.

Hospital officials say the vaccine is working.

"The science is working because today instead of having 90% of our hospitals with COVID patients we have less than 1%," says Montefiore St. Luke's CEO Joan Cusack-McGuirk.

Orange County's vaccination rate is less than the statewide average. The official message there Thursday is not to fear the COVID-19 vaccine.

The coronavirus vaccine is now available to people ages 16 and up.