‘A SEVERE SHORTAGE’
Ulster County shuts down vaccination sites after running out of doses; new delivery not expected before Tuesday; cases, deaths keep rising
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The lack of COVID-19 vaccine has forced Ulster County to halt operations at its “Point of Dispensing,” or POD, centers in Kingston and Ellenville, and the sites probably won’t reopen until next Wednesday.
“There are currently no appointments available,” a notice on the website vaccinateulster. com stated Friday morning. Hours later, the county posted new data showing a sharp increase in active local cases of COVID, as well as two more deaths from the illness.
Dan Proctor, director of Ulster County Department of
Health’s COVID-19 operation, told the Freeman on Friday that the county has ordered more doses of the vaccine but doesn’t expect to receive them before next Tuesday.
If that happens, the Kingston and Ellenville sites will reopen Wednesday, Proctor said.
The county received 2,100 doses on Jan. 7 and has dispensed all of them. The POD site at Kingston High School’s Kate Walton Field House opened Monday, and the secondary site at Ellenville Regional Hospital opened Thursday.
“Due to a severe shortage of supply from the federal gov
ernment, we have far fewer doses than anticipated,” the online notice stated. “There are currently no appointments available for the Ulster County vaccination site.”
In an email Friday to 20,000 Ulster County residents who signed up online for the shots, County Executive Pat Ryan wrote: “Earlier this week, we were promised that the federal government would be releasing a reserve of vaccines, and today it has been reported that the reserve
promise[d] does not, in fact, exist.
“I have and will continue to speak with state and federal officials about vaccine production and distribution,” Ryan wrote. “We will also work to ensure that when we have information ... you will as well.”
In a press briefing Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state’s expected allotment of vaccine doses for next week has shrunk from 300,000 to 250,000.
Ryan said during a Facebook Live event Thursday that the county’s vaccine supply would be used up by the end of the day. Proctor said Thursday that 128 appointments
were scheduled at the Ellenville POD site that day but only 90 people could be vaccinated.
The county said it will post updates about inoculation availability at vaccinateulster.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
By the numbers
Ulster County on Friday reported 159 new diagnoses of COVID-19 out of the most recent 2,408 test results received, a rate of 6.6%.
The number of active cases in the county jumped from 1,957 on Wednesday to 2,072 on Thursday, the county said. The Thursday total was the first above 2,000 since Jan. 10.
The county also reported two more COVID-related deaths, bringing the total since the local outbreak began last March to 171; and the state reported two additional COVID deaths at the Golden Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Kingston, brining the total there to 15. It was not clear whether the two Golden Hill deaths were the two new deaths reported by the county.
There already have been 33 COVID-related deaths in Ulster County this year.
Dutchess County on Friday reported six more COVID-related deaths, bringing its total during the pandemic to 286 and its 2021
total to 49.
Dutchess reported 219 new COVID diagnosis but also 445 recoveries, and its number of active cases fell from 2,394 to 2,162. Hospitalizations, though, rose from 157 to 162.
In the schools
Newly reported COVID cases in area school districts include:
• Six students and three staff members in Saugerties.
• Three students and one staff member in Kingston.
• Three students and a teacher in Rondout Valley.
• One student and one staff member in both Highland and Marlboro.
• One student each in Onteora,
Wallkill, Ellenville and Rhinebeck.
Colleges
SUNY New Paltz reported Friday that an employee tested positive. The college currently has one COVID-positive student and three positive employees positive.
New Paltz begins its spring semester on Tuesday, Jan. 19, and will offering oncampus COVID testing from that day through Feb. 4.
Bard College said has active COVID cases in two students and two employees.