Mass vaccination site now open
Several hundred people per day can be inoculated at the state-run Ualbany location
The University at Albany opened for mass vaccinations Friday, marking a new era in the Capital Region’s race to end the coronavirus pandemic.
State and university officials gathered at the site Friday to celebrate the opening, which comes 10 months after the first coronavirus cases were detected in the area and amid the region’s deadliest phase of the pandemic yet. Equipped to handle several hundred people a day, the site is one of five state-run vaccination sites to open this week and one of at least 20 that will open statewide in the coming weeks.
“We are incredibly proud of the role we have played so far in the state’s response to COVID-19,” said Ualbany President Havidan Rodriguez.
“To producing PPE, to starting a testing site here for the state, to developing our own testing capacity … the vaccination site is the next logical step as we continue to move forward and see a light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.
Officials stressed that the only way to receive a vaccine at the site is to book an appointment through the state’s new vaccination hotline (833697-4829) or the state’s new “Am I Eligible?” website.
That process has not exactly been easy.
The state launched the hotline and website Monday afternoon and it crashed almost immediately. The next morning, eligibility expanded dramatically to include anyone over the age of
65, which compounded the issue. Appointments were snatched up quickly, with some booking as far out as April. In addition to the website crashing, those who tried the hotline reported being on hold for hours, only to be cut off with no way to get their spot back in the queue.
Patrick Murphy, commissioner of the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, urged people to continue visiting the site and calling the hotline since more appointments could open up if vaccine supply increases. The state is receiving about 300,000 doses a week from the federal government. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is calling for more.
“If additional vaccines are received — and we’re pressing for that — then we will adjust that reservation system to be able to get everyone queued up,” Murphy said.
According to records obtained by the Times Union, the Ualbany site received more than half of the region’s weekly supply of roughly 17,750 vaccine doses this week. The other doses went to local health departments, pharmacies and two area hospitals.
There was also confusion as the state’s eligibility website did not initially clarify that people could schedule their seconddose appointments on the same day they receive their first dose.
“A lot of people were signing up for a second shot and took slots away from people that needed it,” Albany County Executive Dan Mccoy said Friday.
At his COVID -19 briefing Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo clarified that New Yorkers do not have to worry about scheduling a second dose on their own. The provider who administers their first shot should be scheduling their second dose the same day they receive their first, he said.
While officials did not let media inside the large white tents where vaccines were being given Friday morning at Ualbany, all seemed orderly outside the tents. Digital signs and the New York Army National Guard helped direct traffic, and ushered those who had appointments into the university’s Northwest Gold parking lot.
Unlike the COVID -19 test site on campus, the vaccination site does not operate as a drive-thru. Individuals who drive there can park their vehicles in the lot, but must get out and receive their shot inside a nearby tent, where they will be asked to wait for a short observation period after receiving their vaccine.
The site will operate daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., including weekends.
Other vaccine sites
The Ualbany site will complement a number of other points of dispensing, or PODS, for vaccination in the region. Many are not up and running yet as counties await more substantial supplies of vaccine.
Local health departments are scheduling clinics with the limited supplies they are receiving.
Albany County’s health department administered all 500 vaccines it received this week during a designated clinic Thursday evening at the Times Union Center. Rensselaer County administered its 100-dose allotment this week to first responders and health workers at Hudson Valley Community College.
These clinics were by appointment only. Both state and local officials are warning people not to show up to vaccination sites without an appointment or they will be turned away.
Adding to the confusion of this week’s vaccine rollout was the unauthorized publication of scheduling links. Several counties are publishing links for limited-size vaccination clinics, but in at least one instance a link was shared early without authorization and more than 700 people had their appointments in Albany County voided as a result.
“I know that there has been a lot of confusion on links that have been sent out and we are aware of several occurrences to either bogus clinics or test clinics,” Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said Friday.
“We’re working with the state on how to ensure this doesn’t happen, because the last thing we need is confusion within these systems.”
Whalen said the Capital Region Vaccine Network was working on an effort to make sign-ups easier, and urged patience in the meantime.
“It’s the supply that’s the rate-limiting step,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to think that there’s vaccine sitting in fridges and for some administrative purpose it’s not getting out. That’s not the situation. Vaccine is getting out as it comes to the entities that get it and we will continue to work on honing the processes to make them easily understandable for the general public going forward.”
Of the 49,100 “first” doses of vaccine that the Capital Region has received to date, 89 percent have been administered, Cuomo’s office said Friday. New York City has the lowest administration rate at 60 percent. The Southern Tier had the highest at 95 percent.
Albany Med, Saratoga Hospital, Glens Falls Hospital, Ellis Hospital and St. Peter’s Hospital have distributed 100 percent of allocated vaccine doses, the Capital Region Vaccine Network said in a statement Friday.
The Capital Region also has the state’s lowest rate of hospital workers declining a vaccine. Cuomo said Friday that only 11.7 percent of hospital workers in the region have declined vaccination. Still, only 65 percent of hospital staff in the region are fully vaccinated so far. Many are awaiting second doses.
According to the Capital Region Vaccine Network, which is led by Albany Medical Center, the goal is to vaccinate 1 million people across the eight-county region.
On track for deadly month
Albany County is on pace to experience its deadliest month yet from the novel coronavirus, officials revealed Friday.
County Executive Dan Mccoy said the county learned of three more deaths overnight Friday — a woman in her 50s, a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 90s. The county has lost 39 residents to the virus so far this month. With half a month left to go, January is on track to beat last month’s high-water mark of 63 resident deaths, Mccoy said.
“We have 16 days left to this month, and I’m hoping not to break that record,” he said. “We need people to do the right thing. Continue to do the right thing. I know everyone’s fatigued and tired. Everyone just wants life back the way it was prior to March 12 of 2020. It’s never going to go back. We can only move forward.”
Greene, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties also announced new deaths from COVID -19 on Friday. The victims included four Greene County residents, two Schenectady County women in their 70s, and a 68-year-old man from East Greenbush.
At least 705 people have died from COVID -19 across the eight-county Capital Region.