NY to fine hospitals that fail to use up vaccines

In an effort to speed up what has been a sluggish rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, New York's governor threatened Monday to fine hospitals up to $100,000 if they don't finish their first round of inoculations by the end of the week.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said hospitals have been receiving vaccines over the past three weeks as part of a program prioritizing frontline medical workers but have only administered the first dose of 46% of their allocated vaccines.

That amounts to roughly 300,000 out of roughly 650,000 allocated doses so far, according to Cuomo.

The Democrat blamed bureaucracy as the chief reason for delays, at public hospitals in particular.

"This is a management issue," Cuomo said at a news conference Monday. "They have to move the vaccine and they have to move the vaccine faster."

The governor also threatened to stop sending the vaccine to hospitals that don't use their share promptly.

Nationwide, the vaccine roll-out has been stymied by logistical hurdles, confusion over who can get a shot and hospitals and local health officials facing surging cases in a holiday season.

Hospitalizations in New York have doubled since early December to 8,251 as of Sunday. The state is averaging 13,687 daily new cases over the past seven days, up 27% from a week ago.

Cuomo said he's spoken to leaders of dozens of hospitals and that New York's delay isn't due to refrigeration and storage issues or hospitals trying to limit vaccines only to eligible and willing healthcare workers. He said hospitals going forward must use all vaccine shipments within seven day of receiving them.

Several hospitals in the state have administered fewer than 30% of their allocated vaccines, according to Cuomo. That's compared to 99% of allocated vaccines administered at New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System and 62% at Northwell Health — the largest hospital system in New York.