Most NY State Vaccine Sites Booked Through Mid-April After Record Surge; Weather Compounds Woes

Postponed. Canceled. “Please try again later.” These are some of the most common messages frustrating tri-state residents as they scramble to try to book vaccination appointments that take months to get and might get shelved anyway.

In most cases, it’s a matter of supply. As Mount Sinai Health System told its clients Tuesday, “Unfortunately, due to sudden changes in vaccine supply, we have been forced to cancel existing public vaccination appointments.”

The relentless winter weather gripping the tri-state area and the nation over the last month hasn’t helped matters either. New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut residents have seen furious storms, including the nor’easter that dropped more than 2 feet of snow on parts of the region earlier this month, push scheduled appointments back days, weeks or longer as local sites closed.

Now, the “inclement weather in the South and Midwest,” has New Jersey’s Monmouth County postponing its scheduled vaccine appointments Wednesday because of U.S. shipment delays — and more sites could be temporarily closed across the tri-state area Thursday when the next tri-state snow system hits.

NBC New York’s Ray Villeda reports.

President Joe Biden’s administration said further delays in vaccine shipments and deliveries are expected across the U.S. because of the persistent winter wallop. It’s unclear how many total doses have been delayed thus far or whether some may have to be rerouted due to storage concerns. In Texas, where more than 2 million homes and businesses lost power amid the latest storm, more than 400,000 doses that were due to arrive were delayed by a day at least.

The headaches — from weather, to supply to confusion over how and where to book appointments and computer glitches — continue to mount for the millions of tri-state residents eager to get their initial vaccinations. At the same time, the pool of eligibility continues to rapidly expand as officials hope faster infusions in arms will lead to quicker economic and public health recoveries for their states.

Opening up appointments to people with qualifying underlying conditions led to a single-day record in appointment signups at New York state-run sites, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. All state-run mass vaccination sites are now fully booked through April 16 except for four locations, three of which are still fully booked through early April at least. New Yorkers have taken to extreme methods, including traveling hours away, sometimes out of state, to try to find open slots.

Not sure how the process works? Or when you might be able to get an appointment? Check out our handy tri-state vaccine site finder and FAQs here

New York City and New Jersey Vaccine Providers

Click on each provider to find more information on scheduling appointments for the COVID-19 Vaccine.

More than 10 million people are now eligible for vaccination in the Empire State. About 20 percent of those eligible have received their first shots, while less than 10 percent have gotten their second, which completes the inoculation process.

Even as supply shortages and weather problems continue to impede efforts tri-state and nationwide, more vaccine hubs and mega-sites are popping up. State and local officials say they expect vaccine manufacturing and distribution to rapidly accelerate over the next few weeks and they have pledged to be ready.

New York City, where fewer than 40,000 first doses remained on hand as of Wednesday, is expected to open two new locations over the next 24 hours.

Mayor Bill de Blasio hopes to open the planned mega-site at Staten Island’s Empire Outlets, which was shelved last month due to supply, on Thursday, but he acknowledged the launch of that site, which will serve borough residents only, may be delayed again. On Wednesday, he opens a new six-day-a-week site at Teachers Prep High School that will prioritize home health aides and the immediate surrounding Brownsville and East New York communities.

A new vaccination site opening Wednesday at Teachers Prep High School in Brownsville, Brooklyn, is meant to prioritize home health aides and local residents. NBC New York’s Gaby Acevedo reports.

The two largest state-run vaccination sites to date are also scheduled to open in Queens and Brooklyn next week, each with the capacity to inoculate 3,000 people a day and each benefiting from specially allocated first doses from the feds to ensure supply. Those sites are intended to serve historically underserved communities and are being developed under a new federal partnership that is expected to expand to additional sites over the next eight weeks or so.

To date, New York City has administered more than 1.3 million total doses. City-run sites have administered 96 percent of the total first doses they’ve received. So far, more than a half-million people who live in the city or are eligible to be vaccinated there have gotten one shot. About 412,000 have received both.

Not sure how the process works? Or when you might be able to get an appointment? Check out our handy tri-state vaccine site finder and FAQs here

Last week, the city administered 317,227 total shots, a record weekly number since the vaccine rollout began. A daily record was set of 55,339 doses, which is more than the city’s current stock of first doses on hand. De Blasio continues to say the city could do more than a half-million doses a week with proper supply.

He called for additional allocation from the state Tuesday. About 45 percent of the state’s federal allocation is going to the five boroughs, which have performed about 53 percent of all vaccinations statewide, the mayor said.

Cuomo has warned New Yorkers, and the officials who represent them, that the supply problem (and the subsequent appointment one) likely won’t ease until the state gets far more than 300,000 first doses a week from the federal government. The White House is in the midst of a roughly 25 percent increase in allotment to states for a three-week period, which is expected to boost supply by about 60,000 doses a week. The feds announced yet another small boost Tuesday.

Daily Percentage of Positive Tests by New York Region

Gov. Andrew Cuomo breaks the state into 10 regions for testing purposes and tracks positivity rates to identify potential hotspots. Here’s the latest tracking data by region and for the five boroughs. For the latest county-level results statewide, click here

Every little bit helps. The same drone — “We could do more if we only had the supply” — that reverberates daily throughout New York echoes in neighboring New Jersey, where Gov. Phil Murphy has yet to expand eligibility to teachers despite mounting pressure to do so. He has said he hopes they’ll be the next group up.

As of the latest data, New Jersey, which receives far less weekly allocation from the feds than New York, has administered a total of 1.4 doses, more than 1 million of those first doses. The latter represents about 11 percent of all New Jerseyeans, according to federal population data. By comparison, New York state’s more than 2 million first doses done to date covers a bit more than 10 percent of the total population. The low threshold for herd immunity is 75 percent.

NBC New York’s Chris Glorioso reports.

At the same time officials at all levels of government work to refine and expedite the vaccine rollout, the reopening process has ramped up considerably. In addition to allowing the return of limited indoor dining in New York City, Cuomo has pushed back the indoor service curfew to 11 p.m. He said over the weekend he would also apply that curfew extension, which took effect Sunday, to casinos, pool halls, gyms and other New York State Liquor Authority-licensed businesses.

Coming next week: the limited reopening of large venues and arenas with fan testing requirements for the first time since the March shutdown. The Barclays Center has already been cleared to host fans at its game Feb. 23, while the Knicks are hoping to do the same for theirs at Madison Square Garden the same day. New York City middle schools will also resume in-person learning next week — and city officials have been prioritizing vaccine access for staff ahead of the return.

As nightlife and daily activities increase, so too must transit access. Cuomo said Monday that the four-hour overnight subway shutdown that has been in place since the onset of the pandemic will be halved starting Feb. 22.

Asked to weigh in on the looming reopenings late last week, de Blasio said he believes the incremental steps are “fine” — with a big “for now” caveat. He and his health team are concerned about managing potential increases in viral spread associated with the increasing prevalence of more contagious COVID-19 variants.

Detection of those, particularly the U.K. variant, is on the rise both locally and nationally, with the CDC reporting nearly 1,300 cases of the so-called B.1.1.7 strain across 42 states as of Tuesday night. New York accounts for 70 of those, while Connecticut has detected 42 and New Jersey has found 38, the CDC says.

The South African variant, which is more complex than the U.K. one, has been detected in 10 states now, up two from the CDC’s report Sunday. Cases of that strain in the U.S. remain relatively low (19), but the number is growing. The first local South African case was confirmed this week in a Connecticut resident.

Concern at the national level over the variants prompted the CDC late last week to issue new guidance for reopening schools to in-person learning. Late last month, one Connecticut superintendent told parents the state department of health had warned schools to prepare for the chance of a need to switch all-remote come March, should the U.K. strain become predominant and lead to a case explosion.

With new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus circulating, health experts are adjusting their recommendations for face masks. NBC News medical correspondent Dr. John Torres joined LX News to explain why you should make sure your face mask is well-fitted and double up.

Overall, vaccines are expected to protect against the variants that have emerged and the new ones that will over time. Efforts to detect variants have gained momentum at the local and national level, with states and cities increasing their capacity to do so. Quest Diagnostics said Tuesday it has doubled the number of COVID-19 genomic sequencing tests it performs for the CDC weekly to 2,000.

In the absence of widescale vaccination, officials say the precautions that have proven to stem the spread of the virus since the start of the pandemic will also curb the spread of the variants. They continue to urge people to practice the “core four” — wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands and stay home if sick.

As de Blasio said Tuesday, “No one should let down their guard.”

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Originally published at https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/most-ny-state-vaccine-sites-booked-through-mid-april-after-record-surge-weather-compounds-tri-state-woes/2892728/ on February 17, 2021 11:21 am.