Albany— Once the center of the pandemic, New York faced a growing crisis on Monday due to the lagging pace of coronavirus vaccines as deaths continue to rise in the second wave and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was subdued. under increasing pressure to conduct a process review.
The small number of vaccine recipients is particularly striking in New York City, where approximately 110,000 people, in a city of more than eight million, have received the first of two doses needed to help prevent severe cases of the vaccine. disease. That’s roughly a quarter of the total number received by the city.
Concern over vaccines in New York echoes problems reported during a slow rollout across the country, and comes as a man in his 60s became the state’s first confirmed case of a more contagious variant of the disease. virus. The man was on the mend, but Mr. Cuomo said early indications were that the case, in the northern city of Saratoga Springs, was evidence of community spread.
“I think it’s a lot more widespread than people think,” Cuomo said.
Confirmation of the variant in New York could complicate the planned inoculation of some 19.5 million residents, and criticism will begin to mount over the deployment. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the Cuomo administration to allow the inoculation of a broader range of essential workers and New Yorkers age 75 and older.
“There is much more we can do if we pass those two categories,” de Blasio said at a press conference yesterday, Monday.
The state has had a deliberate focus on vaccine distribution; As of Monday, vaccines were administered almost exclusively to healthcare workers, group home residents, and those who lived and worked in nursing homes.
That cautious approach was also evident in the state’s initial guidance to determine which health care employees should take priority for vaccines; the state had advised clinics and other facilities to classify employees using a matrix that takes into account age, comorbidities, occupation and the section of the facility where the person works.
State officials said the matrix guide was no longer up-to-date, as the governor on Monday authorized a wider swath of healthcare providers – and others potentially exposed to the virus – to receive the vaccine, including pediatricians and doctors from primary care.
Cuomo rejected any idea that his administration was to blame for not distributing more vaccines, asserting that the problem was local, and urging de Blasio and other leaders who oversee public hospital systems to take “personal responsibility” for their performance.
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