Making endless phone calls? Searching website after website for an open vaccination appointment time? Confused by constantly changing New York State rules? Ripping your hair out in frustration? I know many of you are going through this right now and it is unacceptable. Your worry, concern, and anger at this chaotic and broken New York State vaccination process is more than justified.

While we in Rockland County Government are at the mercy of NYS sending us vaccine, here is what we are doing to try to control this chaos and better serve all of you. To assist those who are 65+ in navigating the appointment process, the Rockland County
Office for the Aging is scheduling all the appointments for vaccine allocations for this population that we receive from New York State.

Additionally, Office for the Aging staff will help find appointments whenever and wherever they become available here in Rockland. Any eligible senior can call the Office for the Aging at 845-364-2110 to be added to their database of those seeking appointments. Please be patient if their phone bank is busy helping other residents.

Moving forward, the state has mandated that local health departments vaccinate ONLY essential workers including police, firefighters, teachers, college professors, and grocery store workers. The full list of essential workers in phase 1b can be found here: https://covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/phased-distribution-vaccine#phase-1a—phase-1b.

That means that future shipments may not include any vaccine for seniors to get vaccinated at our Health Department; a decision that I personally disagree with. Those essential workers in the phase 1b population should check our Health Department’s COVID-19 specific webpage for the latest information on vaccine availability. This page is where we will post when we receive more vaccine from NYS, and more appointments become available: https://rocklandgov.com/departments/health/coronavirus-covid-19/

Despite the chaos of this State process, I am proud of our local efforts which, as those who have been vaccinated at our Department of Health can attest, have efficiently and effectively gotten shots into arms of residents. I shudder at the thought of what would have occurred if we did not take the bull by the proverbial horns and implement this initiative.

We will continue to improve our local response to this problematic NYS process as best we can and ask for residents to remain patient. We know you want to be vaccinated and will do everything in our power to help you get the shot to protect you from this deadly disease.

The other resource for those eligible to be vaccinated in the State’s “Am-I-Eligible” webpage which has a list of all state-run vaccination sites: https://am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/

If you do not have access to a computer, eligible New Yorkers can call to schedule a vaccination appointment at a state-run site by calling the New York State COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline 1-833-697-4829. Vaccinations performed by local pharmacies and
physician networks or practice groups must be made through them.

We cannot predict how many more doses will be received from New York State in the coming weeks and encourage eligible individuals to sign up for appointments wherever they are available. As a reminder, wherever you receive your first dose of vaccine, you must return to that location for your second dose which is guaranteed to be available to you by both the State and Federal government.

This state effort has been a chaotic and rocky process so far, but we will get through it. We will keep fighting to bring more vaccine to Rockland and will keep working to improve our local efforts and response. That is a process that will not stop until all of you who want the vaccine get the vaccine.

*This is a weekly column by Rockland County Executive Ed Day.