New York's COVID-19 vaccine distribution has been underway for more than a month, with the initial doses going to hospital workers, health care employees and nursing home residents and staff. But experts say the process is moving slower than anticipated, even as the state has expanded eligibility to essential workers, including police and firefighters and people 65 and older.
Here's what we know about the state's coronavirus vaccine distribution efforts:
How do I sign up to get my vaccine?
All local municipalities, including Nassau and Suffolk, require individuals to first check their eligibility and then to make appointments for the vaccine through the state's portal at covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov. You can also reach the New York State vaccination hot line: 833-NYS-4VAX. Nassau and Suffolk have amassed key information at nassaucountyny.gov and suffolkcountyny.gov. State officials encourage New Yorkers to remain patient as appointments can be up to 14 weeks later because of the limited federal allocation.
How many doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has the state distributed to date?
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday that 732,066 doses have been administered as of 3 p.m. that day — an increase of 67,000 in the past 24 hours — 624,280 in distribution sites that include hospitals and 107,786 in long-term care facilities. Cuomo's top aide, tweeted that 61.7% of the vaccines delivered in the state had been administered as of Tuesday afternoon.
Nationally, 9,327,138 Americans have received the first dose of one of the two vaccines, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state officials.
How is vaccine distribution going compared to expectations?
Not well, with the Trump administration failing to hit its goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020.
Elected officials concede the pace of the vaccine rollout has lagged, with Cuomo noting last week that just a sliver of the state's 2.1 million health care workers have received the first dose.
Cuomo has pleaded with the federal government to speed up deliveries, either with more doses from Pfizer or Moderna, or by approving vaccines being developed by Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Cuomo Tuesday also criticized the pace of the distribution effort, calculating that, with New York receiving only 300,000 doses of vaccine per week from the federal government, it would take six months to get to all the eligible groups.
What's the holdup?
State and local officials say they are getting shots into people's arms as fast as the vaccines are delivered but that demand is overwhelming the supply chain. The only way to pick up the pace, officials say, is with more available doses.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the nation’s foremost infectious disease expert, told Newsday earlier this month that the distribution effort has been plagued with problems and delays, in part from launching the effort in the middle of the holiday season. Hospitals and medical facilities also are staggering the shots as some recipients could feel unwell the following day, while obtaining consent from nursing home residents can often take time, experts say.
Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of medicine and chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital, offered another explanation, noting that hospitals were caring for a surge in COVID-19 patients while also administering the vaccine and caring for other patients.
What’s being done to speed up efforts?
To accelerate the vaccination effort, the state has stood-up a network of distribution sites, including doctors' offices, Federally Qualified Health Centers, county health departments, ambulatory centers and pharmacies.
More than 1,200 pharmacies will participate in this network, with nearly 400 scheduled to come online this week, officials said. Pharmacies will be provided vaccines for New Yorkers aged 65 and older, while hospitals will continue vaccinating health care workers. Local health departments and union-organized efforts will vaccinate essential workers such as police and transit workers.
State officials also will open five mass vaccination sites, including one at Jones Beach where people were able to schedule appointments since Monday and will start getting shots on Thursday. An additional 15 sites across the state will be announced in the coming days, officials said.
Cuomo has threatened to fine hospitals up to $100,000 if they did not distribute their vaccine inventory within seven days of receiving those doses. Last week he specifically called out Nassau University Medical Center for failing to quickly administer the COVID-19 vaccines it has received. Cuomo cited data showing NUMC had distributed 19% of its allocation although the hospital said the figure was 34%.
What groups are eligible to receive the vaccine?
Roughly 2.1 million health care workers, residents and staff in nursing homes, and others in health professions were in the first group, known as Phase 1a, made eligible for the shots. On Friday, Cuomo expanded the list to Phase 1b, including people over 75 as well as teachers, police and firefighters, transit workers and others deemed essential workers. Those 3.2 million people became eligible Monday.
On Tuesday, following new federal guidelines, Cuomo expanded the eligibility to people 65 and older and others with compromised immune systems, bringing the total of those able to schedule vaccinations to more than 7 million state residents. The group of residents 65 and over are eligible immediately, Cuomo said, while it was not clear when the immunocompromised people will be added to the list.
When could the general public get the vaccine in New York?
It could take months until the majority of the state's nearly 20 million residents become eligible for the vaccine, officials said. In Fauci's Newsday Live interview, he said he hoped vaccinations of health care workers and other priority groups would be completed by the end of March or early April, paving the way for the general public to start being inoculated.
How quickly do I need a second COVID-19 vaccine shot?
The second dose of the Pfizer vaccine should be taken 21 days after the first shot. For Moderna, it's 28 days. But the timing of the shots need not be exact. The CDC says the second shots can be given up to four days earlier or later.
Should I take the second dose from the same manufacturer as the first dose?
Yes. Health officials say that the vaccines were tested based on the premise that recipients would take both doses from the same manufacturer. State officials will only administer the same vaccine to recipients when they sign up for a second dose.
Who is administering the vaccine?
State and local health department officials, hospital staff and volunteer-based medical reserve corps are helping to administer the vaccine. Retired nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola, Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital in Oceanside, Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow and Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue are assisting in the effort.
