BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – There is no shortage of people eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine have been unsuccessful at booking appointments locally but finding luck elsewhere.
“It can be had if you’re willing to leave Erie County,” WGR reporter Paul Hamilton told WBEN Monday.
Hamilton signed up to get a vaccine at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. He’s not the only one locally who has found luck at getting appointments in other parts of New York State. Jim Healy, a teacher in Buffalo, told WBEN he booked a March appointment at the Rochester Dome Arena in Henrietta.
“We looked like we were going to (get an appointment in) Syracuse (on Sunday),” Healy said. “We tried all day. At the very last minute, we got bounced out. They shut down just as it looked like we were getting close. At the Dome in Rochester, they opened up some late last night…We ended up getting them. They’re not until March 22.”
New York State has a vaccine site open at the University at Buffalo’s South Campus. However, there are no appointments currently available. At the time of the writing of this article, there are appointments available in 5 of the 13 vaccination sites. However, there have been changes. Click here to see the current vaccine available through New York State.
The state-run vaccine site is intended to vaccine those eligible who “fall through the cracks” of other sites like local health departments (essential workers and teachers), pharmacies (people aged 65 and older), and hospitals (health care workers). Because of a limited supply to all of those other locations, many people have found more success at the state-run sites.
“I wanted to go to the local government as quick as possible,” Healy said. “They could roll it into local pharmacies, put it into local medical, and take care of this. The federal government’s distribution was a disaster. The state government’s distribution was a disaster. There’s just nothing here. People are putting their families on the road during the pandemic.”
WBEN reached out to the governor’s office to comment on those traveling outside the region. Jill Montag, a spokeswoman for the state health department, sent the following statement.
“We allocate doses based on regional population, and our state-run mass vaccination sites are spread across the state to ensure everyone has access to them. These sites’ goal is to vaccinate the region they are in, and of the more than 1 million appointments that have been made at state-run sites, roughly 75 percent are for New Yorkers from the site’s region. At the end of the day, however, our goal is to get shots in arms as quickly and efficiently as possible – if New Yorkers in one area are not booking all available appointments, and someone is willing to travel to get a shot, that only reflects the woefully inadequate supply of vaccines we received from the Trump Administration. Thankfully, we have already begun to see some progress under the Biden Administration – less than a month after he was sworn in as President.”
Healy said he’s found luck booking appointments in the overnight hour.
“Those appointment times have come (when people) got up really early, like 4 a.m. or if they’re doing it late after midnight,” Healy said.
More than three millions New Yorkers have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.