After delays, vaccine push is on
Counties schedule clinics as shipments arrive; region’s trends remain positive
Albany and Rensselaer counties announced Monday they will host vaccination clinics this week for individuals whose appointments were canceled last week after inclement weather delayed vaccine distributions across the country.
Both counties, along with a number of other local vaccine providers, were forced to cancel second-dose clinics for the coronavirus vaccine at their points
of distribution last week — prompting concerns that a delayed second dose might weaken the vaccine’s efficacy.
Officials have said that second doses can be administered up to six weeks out from the first one while maintaining full efficacy. But news that shipments had begun to arrive in the region Monday is expected to ease concerns for those who were getting antsy.
Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen said the county received a shipment of 2,900 doses Monday morning and will go forward with a clinic for Wednesday at the Times Union Center in Albany. The clinic is for anyone who was scheduled to get a second dose at the center last Thursday. Appointment times will remain the same, she said.
“We will be sending out information
for those that were due that second dose of vaccine via email,” she said. “People will be getting robocalls and we’ll be posting it on our website. So if you were due for that second dose of vaccine last week please ensure that you’re checking your email, you’re listening to your phone messages and you’re looking at our website so that we can see you on Wednesday evening at the TU Center.”
Albany County is also planning to host two vaccination clinics on Thursday — one for first doses and another for second doses. Online registration for the first-dose clinic, which is open to essential workers and those with certain medical conditions, is expected to open Tuesday at 5 p.m. via a link on the county website.
A 1,300-dose shipment of vaccines the county was scheduled to get last week is now expected to arrive “late this week,” Whalen said.
“So we will be looking for that shipment,” she said. “Once the shipment is in we will be talking about scheduling an additional (clinic) to make sure that we get that vaccine out to the eligible populations within the week.”
Rensselaer County announced Monday that it will host a second-dose vaccination clinic at Hudson Valley Community College this week now that a shipment of delayed coronavirus vaccine has arrived.
The clinic will be for some 1,500 people who received their first dose of vaccine at county-run clinics held Jan. 21-23 and Jan. 27-31. The seconddose clinic will operate Wednesday through Monday, March 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at HVCC’S Mcdonough Ice Rink.
The county Health Department will reach out to those who should be receiving second doses this week to inform them of their appointment. Those who have not received a call or email from the county Health Department by Tuesday are asked to call 518-2700450.
“Those calling regarding the second doses are asked to please be patient due to the expected volume of calls,” the county wrote in a Facebook post.
Whalen said Monday she expects “a tremendous increase” in the amount of vaccine coming into the Capital Region in the coming month, and urged people to get vaccinated when it is their turn to do so.
“This vaccine is safe and effective and will protect you from getting serious disease, from being hospitalized, and in some cases it could save your life,” she said. “So please consider getting the vaccine when it’s your turn.”
Washington Avenue Armory site
Whalen encouraged people who live in 11 local ZIP codes to try and sign up to receive a vaccine at the new Federal Emergency Management Agency mass vaccination site at the Washington Avenue Armory.
The site will open March 3, with the first week of appointments going specifically to people who live in the following ZIP codes: 12202, 12206, 12210, 12209, 12207, 12222, 12180, 12307, 12308, 12305, 12304.
Whalen noted that several of those ZIP codes are located in Schenectady and Troy, as well as Albany County. They were selected based on their social vulnerability index — a tool that uses 15 census variables to help local officials identify communities that may need support before, during or after disasters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state has said it will open scheduling for the site on Wednesday. But Whalen on Monday said the state will also be utilizing a new vaccine preregistration tool the county recently launched to identify candidates from those ZIP codes. She encouraged people to register using the tool — available at https://alb.518c19.com — and said additional state guidance on how to sign up for the Armory site will be coming soon.
Variant updates
Also on Monday, Whalen revealed that the two variant cases of coronavirus that were first detected in the United Kingdom and subsequently found in Albany County this weekend were identified in two teenagers who live at a congregate youth facility.
She did not identify the facility. A county spokesperson said doing so would violate the individuals’ privacy.
Whalen said both teenagers had asymptomatic cases of the disease, and noted that while the variant is not known to be more severe than traditional COVID-19, it is known to be more transmissible. The teens were tested as a precautionary measure after another person at the facility tested positive for coronavirus, she said.
The state will be conducting additional testing at the facility Monday, she said.
School guidance
Whalen said the county issued updated guidance to local school districts Friday that limits mandatory quarantines after exposure to coronavirus to only those individuals who had close contact with the infected person.
The change means that entire classrooms will not necessarily have to quarantine after an exposure, as was the case before.
Whalen said the guidance change comes as data reveal schools are not a significant source of spread for the virus, likely due to the masking and distancing protocols being enforced.
More deaths, cases at November levels
Five more Capital Region residents have died due to complications from COVID-19, officials announced Monday.
Two of the victims — one in their 80s and another in their 90s — were Warren County residents who had been living at home prior to hospitalization with the disease, officials said. Saratoga County also reported two more deaths Monday, and Columbia County reported one; neither provided details about the victims. The eight-county region has lost over 1,000 people to coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Meanwhile, new cases of the virus continue to fall across the region. As of Sunday, the Capital Region was averaging 197 cases of the virus a day (measured on a seven-day rolling average) — down from 205 the day before and a high of 1,009 seen Jan. 10. The last time the average daily caseload was this low was just before Thanksgiving on Nov. 21.
Capital Region hospitals reported 168 coronavirus patients on Sunday, flat from the day before — but well below the high of 553 observed Jan. 19.