Step it up on vax: N.Y. pols
The city and state need to do a better job of getting COVID vaccines to New Yorkers, elected officials said Sunday.
The city should conduct vaccinations 24/7, for starters, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) said in separate statements.
“During the pandemic, our public hospital system has proven to be a national leader in #COVID19 testing,” tweeted Stringer, a Democrat who’s running for mayor. “That’s why this vaccine rollout has been so frustrating — we know we can do so much better.”
He called for “immediate” vaccinations of all health care workers and “increased public communication about vaccine rollout and real-time updates about their own status,” among other steps.
A de Blasio spokeswoman insisted the city is on track to meet his goal of delivering 1 million vaccine doses by the end of the month.
“We have the infrastructure in place to get vaccines out of freezers and into the arms of more New Yorkers,” Avery Cohen said in an email. “But to really accelerate our pace, we need more support and flexibility from our partners at every level of government, as well as more supply from manufacturers.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams echoed Stringer’s criticism.
“Our city and state [are] lagging, putting lives at risk and delaying our recovery,” said the Dem, who’s also running for mayor. “We are also still waiting to hear about a comprehensive plan for how to vaccinate the New Yorkers most at risk after the first round of dosages.”
Nearly 105,000 vaccine doses had been administered in the city as of Saturday, according to the Health Department, with more than 391,000 doses delivered to the Big Apple.
The U.S. ramped up COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of shots dispensed to about 4 million, federal health officials said Sunday.
On Dec. 14, a Queens ICU nurse was the first person in the country to receive a COVID vaccine.
In the city, the vaccine was initially authorized for high-risk health care workers and nursing home residents and patients, followed by staff at community clinics and urgent care centers.
Levine, who chairs the Council’s Health Committee, said he’s proposing legislation to require at least one COVID vaccination site to be open 24/7 in each ZIP code.
“We are in a war-like situation,” he tweeted. “We need to be vaccinating TWENTY FOUR-SEVEN. We are losing precious time.”
A key gauge of the coronavirus outbreak in the city reached an alarming new high over the weekend. The latest seven-day average at which COVID tests came back positive was 9.08%, according to de Blasio, up from 8.87% at the end of last week and continuing a worrisome trend since the fall.
During the week ending Saturday, the city saw 221 confirmed fatalities due to COVID, bringing the total death toll to 25,244, according to the city Health Department.
“I want to take the vaccine. I move around a lot and come into contact with many people and I would feel much safer if I took it,” Gov. Cuomo said in remarks to the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. “But I will not take the vaccine until it is available for my group in Black, Hispanic, and poor communities around the state.”