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COVID Update: Lots of Demand; Supply? Not So Much…Yet

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Westchester Covid update — Fewer active cases in the rivertowns

February 8, 2021

By Barrett Seaman—

As the infection rates continue to improve (Tarrytown’s active caseload fell back into double digits over the weekend), more and more people are refocusing on the vaccine, where and when to get it.

The deliveries are improving, as the Biden administration upped New York State’s weekly allotment from 250,000 to 300,000 doses, of which Westchester will get about 1,300. And the outlets approved for administering the vaccine are expanding to include more pharmacies and more state-run sites. Yet they are nowhere near meeting the need—especially since the governor keeps opening the gates to new categories.

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“We have a much larger distribution network than we have supply,” Cuomo allowed at a Monday briefing. “We have many more distributors than we have products on the shelves. That’s the tension that we’re facing and that’s why you have so many people chasing vaccines every week and vaccine appointments.”

The competition for vaccines widens again on the 14^th, Valentine’s Day, when anyone of any age with any one of a long list of comorbidities can jump into a line already backed up with healthcare and other essential workers, people over 65 and the developmentally disabled.

To meet the demand—even get close to doing so—requires some juggling. There are, ironically, significant numbers of frontline doctors and nurses who have either declined to be vaccinated or just haven’t gotten around to making an appointment. Some hospitals have inoculated all their staff members; others have had as few as 40% sign up, and the declination rate is notably higher among Black and Brown medical workers.

To adjust for that, the state is shifting allocations from these Group 1A recipients to the newly qualified group of those with comorbidities. Verifying that an applicant actually has one of the listed comorbidities will be difficult. The state is asking that each applicant bring either a doctor’s letter, some form of signed certification or other medical evidence. Cuomo acknowledged that, like everything else in life, there is room for fraud.

The new pop-up sites in high-risk communities that are literally here today and gone tomorrow are limited for the moment to those immediate residents who are 65 and older. The current pop-up sites are in Yonkers, Mt. Vernon and Peekskill—all designated as Yellow Zones—and Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins implied that new ones are likely to be in other high-infection areas. That would suggest that Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown is likely to get one soon.

Ten million New Yorkers are chasing 300,000 doses every week, Governor Cuomo stressed on Monday. At that rate, it will take a year to put a needle in everyone’s arm. “If you get the supply up to 500,000, said Cuomo, “you’re still taking months.”

There are snippets of good news. The governor’s staff is working to stage 300 arts and entertainment events all around the state to employ as many of all those actors, dancers and stagehands that have been out of work for just shy of a year. Audiences will be limited in numbers and tested, as they were for the Buffalo Bills playoff game in early January without any indication of spread.

And at the county level, Westchester will be doing what it can to facilitate vaccinations for teachers and other school staffers. That help appears to be identifying those who have not had either a first or second dose and guiding them to an appointment site. After that, they’re on their own.

Restaurant owners and their patrons in the city got news that the governor has finally relented and will allow them to begin indoor dining (at 25% capacity) starting on Friday, the 12^th—two days before Valentine’s Day, the original target date, so they can work out the kinks after a long period of empty tables.

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