The first of millions of New Yorkers with chronic health conditions lined up to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in locations around the city on Monday, the day after people flooded a state website and a call center when it came. made them eligible for the vaccine.
Four million people with diseases like hypertension and obesity can now receive the vaccine in the state, despite the lack of supplies. Those who were able to schedule vaccination appointments, like Linda Zucker, 55, a lawyer from New Rochelle, NY, were relieved. Zucker, who said he survived breast cancer, started trying to make an appointment at midnight on Saturday, gave up after a while, but succeeded on Sunday morning.
“The end is near,” said Zucker on Monday morning, after receiving the first dose of the vaccine at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Midtown. “The masks aren’t going anywhere, but at least I won’t feel at risk anymore.”
But for many others, the process proved frustrating, if not insurmountable. Many people spent much of Sunday trying to navigate through the three different registration systems in the city and state, some without an appointment time and others resorting to third-party applications.
“I can’t wait to tell our future children how their parents spent Valentine’s Day 2021 making vaccine appointments for us and our loved ones,” said one. dissatisfied user wrote on Twitter.
State officials said they considered the expansion a success. They said 250,924 people successfully booked vaccination appointments on Sunday, more than any day since the registration system was introduced in mid-January.
The process was facilitated by technological updates, such as virtual waiting rooms on the website and a callback system on the telephone line for scheduling appointments, officials said.
In some cases, the updates caused confusion. Many users mistook a screen that told them to try to make appointments later as proof that the system was crashing; in fact, it was designed to prevent people from waiting indefinitely for appointments, said Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.
“It didn’t crash, it didn’t expel people unnecessarily, and yes, they had to try several times, but they were warned not to waste time waiting online,” said Azzopardi in an interview, adding that “the best message is that perseverance pays off ”.
Some users still have difficulty making appointments. Councilman Mark Levine, who chairs the council’s health committee, said there were “real functionality problems” because people were rushing to program them.
“You really need hours of time and technological skill, not to mention access to a computer and Internet connection, to make an appointment,” said Levine in an interview, adding that these requirements contribute to racial and socioeconomic inequalities in the distribution of vaccines.
Levine said the impediments were even more frustrating because the state and city had months to develop a registration system.
“It’s crazy that we’re here in February still trying to figure it out,” said Levine.
In the meantime, Levine gave a tip: he recommended that nominee candidates use the Google Chrome browser in anonymous mode on a computer to avoid technical problems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have prioritization guidelines for the vaccine, but vaccine distribution has largely been left to individual states, resulting in a pastiche of different rules and, in some cases, leading to “vaccine hunters” that cross state boundaries for the taking. About 20 states currently allow high-risk adults to be vaccinated.
Other conditions that now qualify people for the vaccine in New York include cancer, developmental disabilities, liver disease and pregnancy. Some vaccine candidates have expressed frustration that the conditions, which are described by the CDC, seem somewhat arbitrary.
Similar objections arose when smokers were allowed to receive the vaccine in New Jersey. (New York now allows people with lung disease to receive the vaccine, but officials said that smoking alone does not qualify).
New Yorkers seeking the vaccine must provide proof of their condition, such as medical documentation, medical certificate or signed certificate, Cuomo said in a statement last week.
“It is no secret that whenever you are dealing with such a scarce resource, there will be attempts to commit fraud and deceive the systems,” said Cuomo, who threatened fines and other penalties for institutions or individuals who cut the line to get the vaccine.
Authorities said that with an adequate supply of vaccine, New York could inoculate 100,000 people a day, with the help of the newly opened mass vaccination sites at Citi Field in Queens and Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and sites planned by Federal Emergency Management Agency Brooklyn and Queens. As of Sunday, state data indicated that nearly two million New Yorkers had received the first doses of the vaccine.
New Yorkers who managed to arrange meetings were overjoyed.
Jaikaran Sawhny, 38, said he felt like he was checking state regulations several times a day to see when he would be eligible for the vaccine.
Sawhny, a technology worker from East Harlem who suffers from the thalassemia blood disorder, said he was able to make an appointment at the Brooklyn Army Terminal after four hours by constantly updating his browser.
Making an appointment was “painful,” said Sawhny, but getting the vaccine was virtually effortless.
“I didn’t expect it to be so quick and easy, but it was totally efficient,” he said.
Kevin Armstrong and Alexandra E. Petri contributed to the report.