Coronavirus Vaccines Not Getting Into Arms Fast Enough: Cuomo

NEW YORK CITY — Use them or lose them — that’s the warning Gov. Andrew Cuomo levied at hospitals that don’t quickly administer coronavirus vaccine.

And New York City’s Health + Hospitals is one of the state’s lowest-performing systems, with 31 percent of doses it received being used so far, he said.

Other systems such as New York Presbyterian have administered up to 99 percent of doses they received, he said Monday.

“I want to get needles into arms, and I want to get that done as quickly as possible,” he said. “If there are some hospitals that are better at doing that then they should be doing that.”

Cuomo’s directive is backed by a recent state Department of Health letter to hospitals, warning them to use vaccine doses within seven days of receipt. Failure to do so will result in $100,000 fines and potential disqualifications from future distributions, Cuomo said.

The letter could be a figurative shot in the arm for a COVID-19 vaccination rollout that has been rocky, at best. New York City overall has outpaced the country, but distributions have been slow.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday acknowledged the slow pace and outlined steps he said will get vaccinations rolling “24/7.” The goal is to get 1 million doses distributed by the end of January, he said.

Several factors remain out of de Blasio’s control, particularly private city-based hospitals like Montefiore Health System which are low performing by Cuomo’s metrics.

But Cuomo noted that the public H+H system is ultimately run by de Blasio. He gave Hizzoner and other public officials gentle — at least by the governor’s standards — warnings that they should step up vaccination efforts.

“If you can't do that within seven days, then just raise your hand and say, ‘I can't do this,’” he said. “Fine, we'll go to a different hospital. We know what hospitals are better at administering it. I'd rather have the faster hospitals administer it.”

Avery Cohen, a spokesperson for de Blasio, tweeted that Cuomo’s threat is “punitive and unnecessary.”

“@NYCMayor has been clear that H+H must show momentum & get as many vaccines in arms as possible as we wait for NYS to allow more people to be vaccinated,” she wrote.