Cuomo Announces Increased Vaccine Allocations – That’s the good news

Cuomo Announces Increased Vaccine Allocations – That’s the good news…

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York’s vaccine allocations will increase by 16% for at least the next three weeks. He said that New York is prepared to administer more vaccines as soon as the supplies arrive. However, he cautions supply will continue to be limited.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that, while appointments did open up at New York State mass vaccination centers for a few brief hours on Friday night and into early Saturday morning, (more on this in an upcoming article) the increased supply will not alleviate the frustrations of many people seeking a vaccine appointment. For a variety of reasons. There are now seven million New Yorkers eligible to receive the vaccine and the state is only receiving 300,000 doses per week. Secondly, the state is not booking appointments in anticipating of future supply – appointments are only granted to doses that are already on hand. Further there is no waiting list for state run centers and there is no system in place to sign up for future alerts. So you just have to tune in every day and hope you’re not on an important business call, attending to some parenting emergency or on the way to Urgent Care for some other health matter when new appointments become available. Or you will miss them too.

The good news is that, beyond the state run sites, there are better systems in place that don’t put such an unrelenting burden on you to snare the golden ticket – which is driving many of us crazy. The bad news is – well read on…

The Good News: You can now Sign Up for Vaccine Availability Alerts with Westchester County Health Department

If you are 65 to 75 or are eligible under another essential worker category in Phase 1a or Phase 1b, you can sign up for the Health Department’s Alert system. To be clear, this will not sign you up for an appointment, this will only sign you up to be alerted when there are appointments available. The Department cannot set up the appointment system until they have confirmation of receiving the vaccine. Here’s the bad news if you are eligible for Phase 1b of the vaccine rollout because you are 65+!

The Bad News: Westchester County Prioritizes Essential Workers over Individuals Aged 65+

At this time, per the New York State Department of Health, the Westchester County Department of Health must prioritize essential workers in the 1b category for vaccination. Their website indicates that they are working directly with the agencies that employ these individuals to arrange for vaccination of these workers.

The Good News: Pharmacies & State Vaccination Centers prioritize ages 65+

Pharmacies that receive vaccine allocation are to prioritize individuals that are 65+. New York State mass vaccination sites receive allocation for and are to also prioritize all people aged 65+ and essential workers in the 1b category. We recently spoke with the New York State COVID Hotline and our phone representative suggested that a weekly check in with them is good practice. The New York State COVID Hotline number is 833-NYS-4-VAX.

The Bad News

The bad news is that the state vaccination sites don’t have any vaccines – other than in Potsdam or Plattsburg.

Nor does CVS or Rite Aid in Westchester County. In New York, CVS is currently only administering vaccines in Center Moriches and Blasdall. And when we tried to schedule an appointment in Center Moriches today we got the following message: “None of your selected vaccines are available nearby. Try another city or zip code.” And if you want to know when they get new supply to make an appointment – you just have to check in on the right day. Good luck.

The good news: If you provide Rite Aid with your email address they will notify you when they receive supplies. The bad news: that will be under Phase 2 distribution when anyone over the age of 16 is eligible.

The Good News @ Northern Westchester Hospital

Northern Westchester Hospital recently received authorization to be a COVID-19 vaccination site.

The Bad News @ Northern Westchester Hospital:

They don’t have any vaccines. And no alert system either.

The Good News at Caremount Medical

Unlike virtually every other vaccine supplier from the Westchester County Health Department to the New York State run Mass Vaccination Centers to the pharmacies – at Caremount Medical you do not have to frantically check in every day or every week to see if there are vaccines available for you. You don’t have to fret that there may be people out there more vigilant than you or that no matter how quick on the trigger you were last week – the only thing that matters is that you are one of the early callers the next time vaccines become available.

Instead, Caremount has a system where they will call you when there is a dose for you. They will base their outreach program on their patient database – which by the way has your age and health records, including whether you have hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or cancer. We think this is the most civilized approach to rationing the unfortunately limited supply of vaccines the state is receiving.

The Bad News at Caremount Medical

They don’t have any vaccines. And an email notice they sent out last week emphasizes that no medical providers in the area do either. Nor do they know when they are getting to get any.

Frustrated yet?

Vaccinations in New York City: Thecity.nyc recently reported that more than one in four people who have received vaccinations in the city live outside the five boroughs. You can check the NYC Vaccine Finder to schedule an appointment, assuming you can find one. There’s a lot to check and each one seems to have its own policy. For instance, Costco in Queens appears to be only offering vaccines to Phase 1a eligible healthcare workers. Northwell Health’s vaccine center at 199 Amsterdam Avenue is only scheduling second dose appointments. However, the several Montefiore locations appear to be offering a waiting list to people who they can’t currently accommodate. Bad News? If you don’t live in New York City you may need to demonstrate that you work there to be eligible for a vaccine at non-state centers. Peace.