BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York hospitals only have one day left to use up their existing doses of COVID-19 vaccine or risk getting fined by the state.
That ultimatum was issued Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He said it was due to the slow roll-out of vaccinations. Before this week New York hospitals were inoculating around 10,000 people daily statewide.
However, during a conference call Thursday, the governor said since last week that number has nearly quintupled.
"We have seen a dramatic increase in their performance," Cuomo said.
He said statewide, hospitals as of Thursday are doing about 50,000 vaccinations daily.
Whether that increase was spurred by his threat as he claims or hospitals finally getting up to speed, more likely it was a bit of both. Monday, the same day as the Governor's 11:30 a.m. announcement, daily vaccinations increased to 30,000, an increase unlikely to happen in a matter of hours.
The governor also listed several well-performing hospitals Thursday, including Kaleida Buffalo, which he said had used 98% of its vaccine inventory.
However, when 2 On Your Side reached out to Olean Hospital, which the governor said had only used 28% of its vaccine inventory, officials there were surprised.
"Well, unfortunately the Governor's information was woefully incorrect," Olean Hospital Director of Marketing Dennis McCarthy said.
"As of 4 o'clock Thursday it was 87%. We fully expect to have those vaccines in arms tomorrow again," he added.
That's an over 60% discrepancy that so far has no explanation. McCarthy said the complicated reporting process may have contributed to the state's error or the sheer amount of data.
2 On Your Side reached out to the NYS Department of Health and the Governor's Office for comment after normal business hours Thursday night.
"This has been complicated let's face it. Hospitals are not traditionally the source of mass vaccination programs but in this case, we are and we'll continue to work through it," McCarthy said.
The Governor also discussed several new details about the next phase of vaccination for frontline workers and people over 75, Phase 1B, which he said presents a different challenge.
"1B is over 3-million people, again we're getting 300K dosages a week so the supply is our issue," Governor Cuomo said.
He added in the next phase local health departments will be more involved and the state could consider having certain healthcare groups, like those for police officers and firefighters vaccinate themselves, rather than use the current system which started slower than expected.