New York State: Scheduling COVID-19 vaccinations more than three months out

Demand for COVID-19 vaccines is overwhelming limited supplies and causing a backlog of appointments that extends for more than three months, the state said Thursday, while frustration about the rollout continued to grow and local officials fielded complaints from "distraught" residents.

With relatively scarce vaccination spots getting scooped up quickly by lucky residents, the next potential appointments available won't come until late April at this point, New York State said in an alert on its website Thursday.

The alert, in all-caps bold type, said "currently appointments have been made for the next 14 weeks," or about 3 1/2 months in advance.

The state blamed the backlog on limited vaccine supply from the federal government.

"Over 7 million New Yorkers are now eligible for the COVID vaccine but the state only receives 300,000 doses per week from the federal government," the alert said.

The message was posted above a livestreamed video of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s State of the State address on Thursday. The state updated its alert later in the day and took out the time element, without explaining the change.

But Republican officials at a news conference Thursday said the rollout has been a "failure," and called on Cuomo, a Democrat, to provide more information.

About a dozen state, county and town Republican officials said their offices have been inundated with calls from confused and "distraught" residents seeking appointments and information. The callers include police chiefs, firefighters and World War II veterans.

The lawmakers said they don’t have enough information to provide answers.

"This entire rollout has been utter chaos," State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) said outside the New York State Office Building in Hauppauge.

The officials said the governor's office should have started planning the rollout sooner and bringing other officials into the process, including working with town officials to identify vaccine sites.

"We’ve had months and months to plan for this and we’re ill-prepared," State Sen. Alexis Weik (R-Islip) said.

West Babylon resident Anna Foley, an 83-year-old cancer patient, said she can’t get any information about how to get vaccinated. She added that many seniors are not tech-savvy to navigate the online appointment portal, and many can’t leave their homes to go to a vaccination site.

"I’m really frustrated, almost to tears sometimes," Foley said. "It shouldn’t have been this way."

Cuomo said he hopes the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will increase the quantity of vaccines coming to New York.

The appointment backlog "compounds the request for patience because how do you say on one hand 7 million people are eligible and then on the other hand say we only have 300,000 dosages per week? But there will be a new federal government and the new federal government at the top of the list has to be increasing the priority of production of dosages," he said in comments made earlier this week and forwarded by his press office Thursday after a request for comment.

The state’s alert also said vaccinations are to be performed by health departments, pharmacies, doctor’s offices and hospitals. It instructs residents to "call them for appointments as they become available & for additional information."

Later in the day, a statement from Marcy Stevens, general counsel of the state's Office of Information Technology, indicated the state referred for investigation to the Inspector General the use of an unauthorized scheduling link to make vaccine appointments at state sites "that are not currently open and were not taking appointments at Binghamton, Buffalo, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Stony Brook and Utica." The link had been shared "without authorization" on social media, she said.

Long Islanders who qualify for the shots have expressed frustration over the last several days for repeatedly trying and being unable to access the state’s website and telephone hotline for scheduling vaccination appointments.

State to open Stony Brook site

The state plans to open a site next week at Stony Brook, in the R&D Park on Stony Brook Road, that will operate from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. A state-run site opened at Jones Beach on Thursday.

Suffolk County said it can accommodate up to 1,500 vaccinations a day at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, but it had gone through all its supply and no vaccinations were taking place Thursday.

Northwell Health has set up sites in conjunction with Nassau and Suffolk counties at: Northwell Health Center for Advanced Medicine in Lake Success; Northwell Health Physician Partners in Syosset; Belmont Park in Elmont; Nassau Community College in Garden City; Yes We Can Community Center in Westbury; Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood; South Oaks Hospital in Amityville; Peconic Bay Medical Center — Entenmann Campus in Riverhead, and Fairfield Properties Ball Park in Central Islip.

Northwell spokesman Joe Kemp said appointment times are available as supply of the vaccine is available. Kemp noted the vaccine also is available on a limited basis at four Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care Centers in Huntington, Riverhead, Hewlett and Syosset.

About 102,000 had been vaccinated as of Thursday at various Long Island venues.

Nassau said about 55,000 eligible New Yorkers have been vaccinated at centers in the county, including about 5,000 at Department of Health locations at Nassau Community College in Garden City and the Yes We Can Community Center in Westbury.

The sites run by the county health department are setting appointments one day in advance based on vaccine availability, said Vicki DiStefano, a spokeswoman for the executive’s office.

Suffolk County officials said more than 47,000 New Yorkers have been vaccinated in various facilities. That total included 39,274 administered at hospitals through Jan. 11; 3,450 to nursing home residents, 2,477 to nursing home staff and 2,510 at county sites to people in the 1a category.

On the East End, a group of 17 town supervisors, mayors and state legislators pleaded with Cuomo in a letter to establish more sites there.

They said the vaccination distribution is "virtually nonexistent" on the East End, and it is too far for residents, especially older ones, to drive an hour or more to Jones Beach, Stony Brook or Brentwood.

Declining coronavirus positivity

State figures released Thursday indicated the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state has declined after a spike caused by social gatherings during the holidays.

The statewide positivity level in test results from Wednesday dipped to 6.42%. On Long Island, it was 8.69%, and in New York City 5.83%.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus dropped by 106, to 8,823. A total of 202 people died of coronavirus-related causes on Wednesday, including four in Nassau and 22 in Suffolk.

An additional 1,172 people in Nassau and 1,587 people in Suffolk tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. The number of new positives in New York City was 5,359.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said the county is "finally moving in a positive direction" with its positivity level "below 10 percent for the sixth day in a row now here in Suffolk County."

'Pop-up' site coming to Hempstead

The first "pop-up" COVID-19 vaccination site in a local church is expected to open Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — at Union Baptist Church in Hempstead.

A preselected group of people age 65 and over will be vaccinated, a Nassau County official said. Only 150 doses are available.

Rev. Sedgwick Easley, pastor of Union Baptist, said vaccine recipients will come not only from his church but from the community.

"We are a community-focused church," Easley said. "Second of all, we pastor in a minority community in Hempstead where many struggle" and have been hard hit by the virus. "That’s why we’re participating. We’ve lost many to COVID-19. More than I want to count."

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