It’s not a lack of COVID-19 vaccination sites that’s behind the slow roll-out of the vaccine to 1-A priority individuals and nursing homes in Western New York.
It’s a lack of vaccine itself, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Friday.
New York state is receiving 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine a week. The Western New York Vaccination HUB decides how the region’s share of vaccine is distributed the lieutenant governor said in a ZOOM video press conference.
Hospital workers and nursing home residents and some staff in the five Western New York counties began receiving the vaccine three weeks ago.
In an effort to speed getting vaccine into the arms of healthcare workers and first responders, Gov. Andrew Cuomo authorized county health departments to become involved in the vaccination program.
In Olean, the Cattaraugus County Health Department vaccinated more than 200 people in the 1-A group in three days, supplementing the number of vaccinations Olean General Hospital and University Primary Care have been able to administer.
“It will take until mid-April to get through 1-A completely,” the lieutenant governor said. “Our goal is to be the first COVID-free state in the nation.”
On Monday, those in the next group, 1-B, which includes essential workers and those over age 75, will be eligible to register for the vaccine, she said. People may be eligible, but the vaccine may not be immediately available to be able to open numerous mass vaccination sites. The federal government is distributing the vaccine to the states.
Hochul said more than 360 points of distribution (PODs) for vaccinations have been identified in recent days in Western New York. There are more than 43,000 healthcare workers in the region, she added.
State health departments have also begun to supplement the federal vaccination efforts at nursing homes and long-term adult care facilities. The U.S. contracted with CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate the vulnerable elderly in nursing homes who have been hardest hit by the coronavirus.
“We can’t wait to get the vaccine in the arms of all Western New Yorkers,” Hochul said. State officials are looking for a high participation rate to arrive at a herd immunity “to end the disastrous pandemic. I want people to have confidence in the vaccine.”
Joining Hochul were UB Jacobs School of Medicine Dean Dr. Michael Cain, Catholic Health CEO Mark Sullivan, ECMC CEO Tom Quatroche and the Rev. Mark Blue, president of the Buffalo Branch of the NAACP and chairman of the Health Equity Task Force.
Cain said the Vaccine Planning Group is working for the equitable distribution of vaccine across all demographics including rural areas. The group has begun moving vaccine around so it can be more widely administered.
Blue, who is also on Cuomo’s New York Vaccine Task Force, said the group will make sure rural areas will receive the same benefits as city and suburban areas.
Hochul said the PODs are already being planned, but “That doesn’t mean will have that amount of vaccine.
Location won’t be the challenge. The question will be, ‘Do we have enough for the public?’”
State officials say that of the 1.6 million people in the five Western New York counties, they are looking to vaccinate 1.3 million.
Hochul said between 35,000 and 40,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in Western New York in three weeks.
“We know we have a distance to go. It’s a lot better than it has been,” she said.
