New York State Government Andrew Cuomo speaks at a press conference on September 8, 2020 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing a law to make selling or administering coronavirus vaccinations to people trying to skip a crime.
“This vaccine may be like gold to some people,” Cuomo said at a news conference Monday. ‘If there is fraud with the distribution – you let people get ahead of other people, or friends or family, or they sell the vaccine – you lose your driver’s license, but i think it should be punishable and i am going to propose a law to that effect. ‘
Cuomo said providers could lose their license if they fraudulently administer vaccines, although the law would add criminal penalties if approved by the state legislature. Until now, health workers and people living in nursing homes and assisted living are eligible for Covid-19 vaccines.
The announcement comes just over a week after a New York clinic, ParCare Community Health Network, was accused of misrepresenting itself to the state’s Department of Health to obtain vaccine doses.
Dr. Howard Zucker, New York State Health Commissioner, said in a statement that the clinic may have “been diverted [the vaccine] to members of the public – contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to primary care health workers, as well as nursing home residents and staffers. ParCare said it would cooperate with the attorney general’s investigation.
New York has already begun to administer Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, although the rollout has been slower than planned. Cuomo urged state hospitals to deliver the vaccine more quickly. He said hospitals will be fined up to $ 100,000 if they fail to administer their coronavirus vaccine allocations by the end of this week.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state has received more than 774,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, but only 237,000 injections as of Saturday.
Hospitals that have received Covid-19 vaccines in the past three weeks have used an average of only about 46% of the doses, according to a slide presented by Cuomo at the briefing. While some hospitals have administered nearly all of their doses, others have used only 15%, according to the governor.
“This is a management issue for the hospitals. They need to move the vaccine, and they need to move the vaccine faster,” said Cuomo.
Cuomo said the New York State Department of Health sent a letter to all hospitals on Sunday saying that if they don’t use their vaccination allocations by the end of this week, they will be fined up to $ 100,000 and no further allocations.
In the future, state hospitals will have to use their doses within a week of receipt. Providers seriously falling behind could face further sanctions, he said.
“You have the assignment, we want it into people’s arms ASAP,” said Cuomo. “We will use other hospitals that can administer it better.”
New York is participating in the federal government’s partnership with pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens to administer doses to long-term care residents, although Cuomo said the program is not moving fast enough.
Just under half of the state’s 611 facilities participating in the program have administered the first dose of vaccine to residents so far, Cuomo said. The state will send personnel to “supplement and expedite” the federal program to vaccinate up to 85% of nursing home residents with their first dose by the end of this week, he said.
“The goal is to have all nursing home residents vaccinated for the next two weeks,” said Cuomo. “Nursing homes have always been the most vulnerable population groups and we want to get that done. We want to get that done quickly.”