Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced five state-run vaccination sites have begun accepting appointments and are scheduled to open this week. The sites – the Jacob K. Javits Center, Westchester County Center and New York State Fair Expo Center – will all open on January 13 at 8 a.m. Sites at Jones Beach and SUNY Albany will also open on January 14 and 15, respectively, with more vaccination sites to be announced in the coming days.
Since federal supply severely limits the ability to distribute vaccine, New Yorkers are encouraged to remain patient and are advised not to show up at vaccination sites without an appointment. New York’s vast distribution network and large population of eligible individuals far exceed the vaccine supply coming from the federal government, which is arriving at a rate of approximately 300,000 doses per week. As such, eligible New Yorkers should be prepared to receive an appointment date as far as 14 weeks or further in the future.
“New York State is rapidly expanding our networks and capabilities to get as many New Yorkers vaccinated as fast as our supply allows,” Governor Cuomo said. “The new vaccine sites across the State will expedite our distribution to get our most vulnerable New Yorkers vaccinated efficiently. Our greatest hindrance continues to be federal inaction. We have come too far to be held back in our efforts by the inadequate vaccine supply from the federal government. I encourage New Yorkers to be patient throughout this process and urge our federal government to increase the supply to states.”
To further accelerate the vaccination rate of priority health care workers, and begin the vaccination of newly eligible New Yorkers. New York has established a network of distribution sites that will supplement the work being done in hospitals to prevent any one hospital from becoming overburdened. This network includes the five state-run sites opening this week, as well as 15 more which will be announced in the coming days. This new network will also utilize doctors’ offices, Federally-Qualified Health Centers, county health departments, ambulatory centers and pharmacies to get doses in the arms of eligible New Yorkers. More than 1,200 pharmacies have already committed to participating in this network, with nearly 400 scheduled to come on-line this week. Pharmacies will be provided vaccines for New Yorkers aged 65 and older, while hospitals will continue vaccinating 1a healthcare workers, and local health departments and union-organized efforts will serve essential workers in 1b.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer wrote, “Important Fact:New York State – from NYC to Buffalo to Montauk – Is only receiving 300,000 doses of vaccine each weekAt that rate, it would take over 60 WEEKS to vaccinate every New Yorker. There are problems with the State system… and that happens when demand far exceeds supply and thereby insufficient appointments.
But that number is staggering…. 60 weeks at the current supply rate to vaccinate everybody. There’s your number one problem. You get on the State website and you can’t get an appointment at a site because the location doesn’t have enough vaccine committed to them.The utter failure of the Federal Administration to establish a NATIONWIDE vaccine distribution plan then requires each State to set up their own plan, with obvious differences among them.
Making it harder or easier to get vaccinated, depending on the State.We failed to have a nationwide plan to identify the virus as an emergency… we failed to have a national program to regulate social distancing or mask wearing….. we failed to have a national program for COVID testing…. and now, we fail to have a national vaccine program. But it didn’t have to be that way. Some people were busy worrying about other things and ignoring the most important issue of the day.So the State, and the County and the locals will do our best given the circumstances but it is rocky and bumpy.
We open the County Center today as a vaccination center and we could get up to 1,000+ people vaccinated per day once we’re fully rolling. If we can get enough doses of vaccine.”
Earlier this week, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, from Westchester said, “The vaccine rollout, as we know it, has been extremely disappointing,”
