Faced with a limited supply of doses of Covid-19 vaccine and what they say is an unknown system for securing appointments, some New York residents plan to travel hundreds of miles across the state to get a chance.
Maura Laverty, a 66-year-old nurse from New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, said she was preparing for a road trip after setting up an appointment in a snow-covered college town near the Canadian border .
He said he spent hours looking for a place at facilities near Westchester County, but was unsuccessful. He then went to a state-run web portal that allows any eligible New York State resident to book appointments at 13 state-run mass distribution centers.
The Jacob. The K. Javits Convention Center, a Manhattan state center, was his first choice, but the only available slots were in a location in Potsdam, St. Lawrence County.
“The search was an exercise in futility, so I’ll make a nice little getaway,” said Ms. Laverty, who decided she would work away from a vacation rental for a few days while getting the hit.
Maura Laverty, a New Rochelle nurse, travels about 350 miles to Potsdam for a shot.
Photo:
Maura Laverty
Other New York residents also said their vaccine appointments were a good excuse to spend a mini vacation. But most described the appointment process as annoying and said they were frustrated that the state had not allocated a larger number of doses to the more densely populated regions.
Local officials across the state have also complained that the state diverted precious doses of vaccine to its own centers, where any New Yorker can sign up for an appointment, instead of going to local pharmacies, clinics or places. administered by a county serving the residents of the area.
Peter Bartfeld, a 70-year-old lawyer, said he had an appointment in downtown Plattsburgh, which he estimates is a six-hour drive from his home in Valley Stream, Long Island. He selected the site after two weeks without getting a closer location.
“That’s absurd,” he said. “Obviously, you have a bad assignment to the state. Why do people have to drive from Long Island to Plattsburgh? “
Approximately seven million New Yorkers meet the state’s current eligibility criteria, which includes people 65 and older, health care workers, residents and residential staff, as well as essential workers, including teachers. State officials said they received about 250,000 doses of vaccine a week.
About 600,000 people have arranged appointments at state immunization centers, said Department of Health spokesman Gary Holmes, and about 75 percent of them were made by New Yorkers in the same region of the state. State officials did not respond to requests for demographic data about who got an appointment or got vaccinated.
President Biden announced plans to increase the supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines shipped to the states over the next three weeks and to acquire enough additional doses to vaccinate the majority of the U.S. population by the end of the summer. Photo: Doug Mills / Getty Images
Long Islanders can use state centers at Jones Beach and SUNY Stony Brook, and New York City residents can use city sites or state centers at the Javits Center or the Queens Aqueduct Racecourse, each of which can vaccinate at least 1,000 people a day. For most of last week, the only places with appointments available were in Plattsburgh and Potsdam, which are in rural areas. Officials say the two sites can handle 500 appointments a day.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and health officials say vaccine doses are allocated statewide based on population and that some providers have the task of focusing on certain groups: hospitals for health workers, county-run places for essential workers, including teachers, and pharmacies for people 65 and older.
Nancy Bendiner, 73, booked appointments for her and her husband at a state center in Utica after a county clinic near her home in Red Hook, New York, was completed in nine minutes. Their appointments are on consecutive days, so they will spend the night in Utica, he said.
Linda Puiatti, a 65-year-old painter from Dutchess County, travels to Binghamton. “It’s a little sad that we do it this way in the lottery. The person closest to the phone receives the award, ”he said.
Linda Puiatti, a Dutchess County painter, plans to travel about 175 miles to Binghamton for her Covid-19 vaccine.
Photo:
Linda Puiatti
Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s top aide, said state officials were making sure there was parity between locals and out of town. Holmes said the state could try to rebalance the allocation if there were persistent problems.
“Our goal is to get shots in the arms as quickly and efficiently as possible, if New Yorkers in an area don’t book all available appointments and someone is willing to travel for a shot, this only reflects the sadly insufficient supply of vaccines that received from the Trump administration, ”he said.
Biden administration officials said last week that they would increase the number of doses allocated to states, an action they received with satisfaction.
Local leaders said vaccine allocations declined when the centers opened. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, a Republican whose county includes the state center outside Utica, said the allocation for an automatic distribution point set by the county dropped from 3,000 doses. during the week of January 5 at 500 doses per week. of January 20th. The state site opened on January 19th.
Holmes would not say how many doses of vaccine are targeted at state centers, but said county allocations were reduced because the distribution network and eligible population that local health departments focused on had changed.
Debra Blalock, 68, said she was worried about road conditions, but still plans to go to Potsdam from Dutchess county to get a vaccine. He faced the ethic of getting an appointment in another part of the state, but said he felt comfortable doing so because people living closer by had the same ability to sign up.
As he feared his trip north, Bartfeld said he learned Thursday he could get a last-minute appointment at downtown Queens State. The process was efficient and everyone was nice, he said.
“Once you get to that appointment, it’s gold,” he said.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind to [email protected]
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