ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo once again criticized the coronavirus vaccination plan laid out by federal officials, calling it "deeply flawed" during a late-afternoon conference call Friday.
The governor said he was briefed Friday by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which plans to distribute a vaccine to private sector pharmacies to then administer to the public. Cuomo questioned the efficiency of the planned method that he said would not provide funding for government to help with distribution.
"The main distribution would be private pharmacies and private providers," Cuomo said during a conference call Friday. "That is a very limited distribution mechanism. They do not provide for a state to organize vaccination with state personnel on any scale."
Further information on the federal government's plans for vaccine distribution comes as the United States has surpassed 9 million cumulative infections and states across the nation are experiencing a second wave of the virus, which many health experts had predicted would happen.
Pharmacies' capacity to administer vaccines also is impacted by the fact that the establishments already are the conduit for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, Cuomo added. New York and local public health departments have also offered coronavirus testing, supplementing the private sector's efforts.
"First, you now have the same network doing COVID-testing and also asking them to do vaccinations on top of it. You would have to sacrifice one or the other," Cuomo charged. "Secondarily, you do not get the necessary scale to do vaccinations on an expeditious basis."
The governor said New York has administered 13 million COVID-19 tests in the past seven months, and said his interpretation of the federal vaccination plan is that it could take a year to vaccinate the nation's 331 million people. A vaccination that requires two dosages would double the number needed to vaccinate the population, further burdening the network, Cuomo said.
Still, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there were roughly 169 million flu vaccinations distributed last year.
Cuomo noted there is nothing stopping the state from setting up supplemental vaccination sites for schools or other large gathering centers, but New York would be on the hook for the costs.
"The federal government would have to reimburse because we just can't afford it," Cuomo said.
The governor's remarks came as the state Division of the Budget released its mid-year fiscal outlook, which projects a $14.9 billion revenue decline, including more than a 15 percent decline in tax receipts from the forecast made in February. The administration predicts a loss of nearly $63 billion through fiscal year 2024 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuomo has repeatedly called for the federal government to providing fiscal relief to state and local governments, which have seen revenues plummet and costs for responding to the pandemic soar. Congress and the White House are continuing to negotiate a stimulus package.
Cuomo also announced downstate public and private schools in designated "red" and "orange" zones — communities that have seen COVID-19 cases skyrocket and have enacted restrictions to slow the spread — will be able to offer in-person classes under specific conditions. Before a school can reopen, Cuomo said all faculty, staff and students must test negative for COVID-19.
Schools will also be required to do "random surveillance testing" of 25 percent of their facility population weekly. Schools with 300 or more people must keep positivity rates below 2 percent in New York City or 3 percent for schools outside the metropolis, or they will be required to go back to remote learning. For smaller school populations, if more than nine people test positive for the virus, they must return to remote learning, state officials said.
Once schools in downstate communities shift to the "yellow" phase, the surveillance testing threshold drops to 20 percent. Schools that are not part of these restrictions and coronavirus clusters have no testing requirement.
Comments
Post a Comment