MARCY, N.Y. -- New York State opened its mass-vaccination site at SUNY Poly, in Marcy, Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon, all appointments through April 16 at the college were taken.
NYS Commissioner of General Services, RoAnn Destito, came to Marcy Tuesday to kick off the local, state-run site, expressing the governor's frustration at an inadequate supply of the vaccine from the federal government.
"We are now only receiving 250,000 doses a week for all the state of New York and again, I say, 7 million New Yorkers are eligible. At that rate, it could take us six months to vaccinate everyone who's currently eligible. The federal government needs to do better," said Commissioner Destito.
Oneida County Executive, Anthony Picente, isn't sure why the state is complaining about inadequate doses when they're booking vaccine appointments at state-run sites through mid-April, and Oneida County doesn't have enough of the vaccine to innoculate local people through the end of the week.
"I welcome the other POD, but welcome it in cooperation with all of ours. So the hospital is waiting, we're waiting, other counties are waiting, pharmacies waiting, but the state's open and doing business and it booked out three months out," said Picente.
Commissioner Destito said the state's doses didn't take away from the county's.
"We have a limited supply. We do have a limited supply. I know the region gets the amount associated with their per capita," said Destito.
The Oneida County executive said numbers don't lie.
"People can add. Why have we gone from 3000 to 1300 to 500 and all of a sudden the state POD is opening up and they project doing 1000 a day but my number's gone down more than 75% over a two week period?" asked Picente.
Picente said the county expected 500 doses Tuesday, but as of late Tuesday afternoon, had not yet received them, or, any word on when to expect them. He says the county can administer that many doses in a day through its two sites at MVCC in Utica and the drive-thru site, at Griffiss, in Rome.
People traveled from as far as Albany and Greene County Tuesday to be vaccinated in Marcy sooner than they would have been able to get appointments where they live.