After three weeks of a series of vaccinations in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing pressure to speed up the administration of the vaccine immediately, in hundreds of locations, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The mayor has already presented a plan to double vaccination capacity by the end of the month. And he also wants to see websites 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Currently, 125 vaccination sites are open and another 35 will be open by the end of the weekend, according to city health officials. The city has so far administered a total of 110,241 doses since December 14. Only 135 doses were delivered on New Year’s Day; most were administered on December 23, when 13,988 doses were administered.
“Getting it right in the first few weeks was the trend maker,” the mayor said during a news conference on Monday. “Now it’s time to run.”
Qualified healthcare professionals are now able to start making appointments at two Manhattan locations within the next two weeks. Five locations in Health + Hospitals locations can start vaccination on Wednesday for skilled workers. Three locations will open on Sunday at high schools in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Locations in community health centers and emergency care units are also planned.
The mayor is asking the state to increase vaccine prioritization flexibility to allow other essential workers, as well as older New Yorkers aged 75 and over, to start taking vaccines.
“Having this flexibility will allow us to speed up our efforts,” said de Blasio.
De Blasio said he expects more than 100,000 vaccinations to be administered this week alone – roughly the same amount of doses administered in the past three weeks.
Currently, the city has the capacity to administer 150 thousand doses weekly. City health officials now hope to have a capacity of 400,000 injections per week by the end of the month.
Councilman Mark Levine, chairman of the health committee, expects the city to go beyond that – immediately.
“This is a war situation,” said Levine in a telephone interview. “And there should be a vaccination operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
He is working on legislation that would require that a city health department vaccination site (called PODS, or dispensing site points) in each CEP be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, activate the Reserve Corps. City doctor, create a voluntary training system for those who want to help and demand data reports on the websites.
We send the following @nyccouncil legislation for drafting:
* requires at least one covid vaccination site (POD) in each zip code to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
* requires activation of the NYC Medical Reserve Corps for the vaccination program
(1/2)– Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 3, 2021
Prioritization is critical.
But giving a vaccine to someone with lower priority is better than giving it to anyone.
If a website does not use all of its time intervals / doses on any given day, it should be able to offer photos to those with the lowest priority. (From now on they can be fined for that)
– Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 4, 2021
The mayor was receptive when asked about Levine’s proposal on Monday.
Vaccine stations and clinics that open on Tuesday will have hours from 8am to 9am until 7pm
New York City health commissioner Dave Chokshi said the vaccine centers will be run by a group of 13,000 doctors from the city’s reserve corps, and other city officials can be recruited to help.
“Several of the hospitals I have visited are vaccinating very late at night and early in the morning,” said Chokshi. “They found that this is really the best way to maximize throughput for people who are entering the night shift or leaving the night shift, and several hospitals have also started vaccinating overnight. I encourage as many as possible of hospitals accelerating that this week, if they haven’t already. “
Supplies are also needed. The mayor’s commitment to administer 1 million doses by the end of January would require almost double the current distributed doses of 585,850 that the city has.
De Blasio is counting on the federal government to allocate more doses to New York as his ability to administer vaccines to people increases.
“We need the federal government to continue allocating supplies to New York City. We need manufacturers to continue producing and delivering. We have enough to survive this week and get in next week. We don’t have enough to go through the entire month yet,” said the mayor.
Chokshi asked hospitals to vaccinate more people on weekends during longer hours.
Public hospitals with Health + Hospitals administer doses on weekends, but a health system spokesman did not immediately provide information about the weekend’s capacity.
According to state health officials, New York’s public hospitals administered 31% of the doses assigned to them, compared with 99% in the New York Presbyterian Health System, for example.
Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed a “management problem” and threatened fines and revocation of future vaccine allocations to vaccine suppliers if doses are not used within seven days – a move the city has criticized as “punitive”. Hospitals also face severe state penalties if they distribute the vaccine to recipients outside the current priority group.
“We are not even giving the supply we have,” said Levine. “So now, it’s about expanding our capacity and overcoming the logistical challenges that are significant.”
Rachael Piltch-Loeb, a researcher in preparation for public health emergencies, said she anticipates that staff and communication will be a challenge to increase vaccination.
“The ongoing challenges will remain in terms of staff to actually administer the vaccine and communicate to tell people who are eligible and where and when to go,” Piltch-Loeb, a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan and research NYU scientist associate, said in an email. “Priority vaccination groups themselves should not be the problem as to why vaccination rates are low.”
“Priority groups help to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine,” added Piltch-Loeb. Health professionals are already taking care of patients and administering doses in some cases. “[T]The logistics for hospitals to initially vaccinate their employees may have contributed to delay the implementation. “
“The perfect cannot be an enemy of the good in relation to priority groups,” she said.
Other experts called for a concrete national strategy.
The federal program to administer doses in nursing homes has been slow. In New York, about 47% of the 288 facilities involved in the federal CVS and Walgreens nursing home program finished their first doses, according to Cuomo. At a news conference on Monday, Cuomo said 85% of nursing home residents in the state would receive the vaccine by the end of the week.
The City Council will hold a supervisory hearing on January 12 on the slow implementation in New York City.
New Yorkers are rightly concerned about the slow pace of vaccine release so far. We will hold a supervisory hearing on Tuesday, January 12 to determine whether the city is doing everything in its power to vaccinate New Yorkers safely and efficiently as quickly as possible.
– New York Council speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) January 4, 2021
On Monday, health workers began administering the second injection, which ensures greater protection against the virus – about 95% effective in initial studies by Pfizer and Moderna.