Area vaccine supply gets divvied up
Nearly 10K doses to Ualbany site, 100 to Rensselaer County
More than half of the Capital Region’s weekly supply of coronavirus vaccines is being sent to the University at Albany, where the state is opening a mass-vaccination site on Friday, according to records obtained by the Times Union.
There are 9,750 doses being sent to Ualbany, all from a vaccine made by Pfizer that is required to be stored at extremely cold temperatures. The doses are being kept at the Wadsworth Center, a state-run research laboratory in
Albany that has deep-freeze storage facilities.
Another 8,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are being distributed around the region this week to county health departments, pharmacies and to two hospitals: Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, which is receiving 400 doses, and Albany Medical Center, which will get 1,000.
The allotment to some county health departments, which have massvaccination sites and training, is relatively small. Rensselaer County’s health department, for instance, is receiving 100 doses. Other doses are being distributed to health departments in Albany County (500); Schenectady County (400); Saratoga County (1,500); Columbia County (300); and Greene County (500).
The vaccine doses are being delivered to the locations by UPS and Fedex under agreements with the federal government.
Fifteen pharmacies, both chain and independent outlets, are receiving another 3,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week. They include Young’s Pharmacy & General Store in Averill Park; three Market 32 pharmacies; four Rite Aid pharmacies and multiple independent pharmacies across the region.
Eddy Visiting Nurse and Rehab Association, a home health care service, is receiving 100 doses.
The state’s hotline for vaccination reservations — 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1833-697-4829) — and its online portal have both been overwhelmed this week. Numerous people contacted the Times Union to complain that, in some instances, they waited on hold for hours only to have their call disconnected. Others said that after speaking with someone they would simply be directed to register an appointment through the online portal, which would crash.
The AARP New York chapter wrote a letter to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo late Wednesday saying most of their members, who are 50 and older, are struggling to make vaccination appointments and many do not have internet access.
“Their screens freeze when trying to access the state website; the link to the website doesn’t work, they wait hours after calling the state’s toll-free telephone number, only to be told they need to go to the website. In many instances, our members cannot access the internet,” Beth Finkel, AARP New York’s director, wrote in the letter that was copied to Melissa Derosa, secretary to the governor.
“Furthermore, we are also hearing that some New Yorkers, after receiving their first vaccination, have been told to return to the state website to schedule their second shot,” Finkel added. “The failure to schedule an appointment for the needed follow-up shot when the first shot is administered is causing confusion and delays in some receiving their second shot.”
Leaders of Cuomo’s coronavirus task force have urged the public to be patient, noting that more than 7 million people are authorized to receive vaccinations in the first two phases under way — but the state is receiving only 300,000 doses per week, with demand outpacing supplies.
Some people who contacted the Times Union this week said they were able to schedule vaccination appointments.
The backlog in scheduling vaccinations was exacerbated by Cuomo’s announcement this week that, under new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the list of people eligible for vaccinations was expanded to include anyone 65 and older. Previously, in addition to health care and other essential workers, the state had limited vaccinations to people 75 and older.
Many county officials have expressed frustration in the first month of the rollout with what they described as a continuing breakdown in information-sharing, a shortage of doses and overlapping and redundant efforts to vaccinate the first two groups who are authorized to receive the shots — a cohort that includes nursing home residents, front-line health care workers and teachers.
“We have only received a very small number of vaccines,” Rensselaer County Executive Steve Mclaughlin said. “Rensselaer County has set up a POD (point of dispensing site) and are ready to go, but we need the vaccines. We find it confusing the state is not working more productively with counties who have decades of experience in administering mass vaccinations.”
Some of the county leaders also raised concerns that the state-run mass-vaccination sites will draw down on vaccination doses they had been promised.
The three state sites that opened Wednesday are among 20 mass-vaccination sites New York is establishing. The initial sites are at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, the Expo Center at the Syracuse Fairgrounds, and the Westchester Center in White Plains.