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New York State Governor 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 legislation to criminalize the sale or administration of coronavirus vaccines to people trying to skip the line.
“This vaccine can be like gold to some people,” Cuomo said during a press briefing Monday. “If there is a fraud in the distribution – you let people get ahead of others, friends or family, or they sell the vaccine – you will lose your license, but i think it should be criminal and i will propose a law to that effect. “
Cuomo said suppliers can lose their license if they fraudulently administer vaccines, although the law adds criminal penalties if approved by the state legislature. So far, health workers and people living in nursing homes and assisted living centers 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 messing with the state’s health department to obtain vaccine doses.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr Howard Zucker said in a statement the clinic could have “hijacked [the vaccine] to members of the public – contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to front-line healthcare workers, as well as residents and nursing home staff. ParCare said it would cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation.
New York has already started administering the Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, although the rollout has been slower than expected. Cuomo pushed state hospitals to administer the vaccine faster. He said hospitals could face fines of up to $ 100,000 if they did not administer their coronavirus vaccine allocations by the end of this week.
The state has received more than 774,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, but gave only 237,000 vaccines on Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitals that have received Covid-19 vaccines in the past three weeks have only used about 46% of the doses on average, according to a slide presented by Cuomo during the briefing. While some hospitals have administered almost all of their doses, others have used only 15%, according to the governor.
“It’s a management problem in hospitals. They have to move the vaccine, and they have to move the vaccine faster,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the New York State Department of Health sent a letter to all hospitals on Sunday saying that if they did not use up their vaccine allowances by the end of this week, they would receive a fine of up to $ 100,000 and they would no longer receive. allowances.
Going forward, state hospitals will need to use up their doses within a week of receiving them. Providers who are seriously behind schedule could face further penalties, he said.
“You have the allowance, we want it in the arms of the people as soon as possible,” Cuomo said. “We will use other hospitals that can better administer it.”
New York is participating in the federal government’s partnership with drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens to deliver doses to residents of long-term care facilities, although Cuomo said the program was not moving fast enough.
Just under half of the state’s 611 facilities participating in the program have so far administered the first dose of the vaccine to residents, Cuomo said. The state will send staff to “complete and speed up” the federal program to have up to 85% of its nursing home residents vaccinated with their first dose by the end of this week, he said. .
“The goal is, over the next two weeks, for all nursing home residents to be immunized,” Cuomo said. “Nursing homes have always been the most vulnerable populations and we want to make it happen. We want this to be done quickly.
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