SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said there were no reports of technical problems Wednesday when the county opened its website for the latest round of COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
The past two weeks’ response from anxious residents seeking the vaccine overwhelmed the county’s website.
Wednesday things went smoother, but McMahon said the 630 available appointments were gone in 15 minutes.
He also says his office has heard from a lot of people who work in restaurants and as taxi or rideshare drivers. Earlier this week Gov. Andrew Cuomo said counties could consider adding those workers to the list of people who could get the vaccine. McMahon says they’re upset that he is unsure at this point whether to allow them access to the vaccine.
“It’s not that I don’t value you or anything else, but just because you become eligible doesn’t mean that you get the vaccine right away. There’s just not enough vaccine,” McMahon said.
He wants to look at the data and see what kind of dent the county is making in getting seniors vaccinated before adding more people to the pool of eligible recipients.
“I wish the issue was they sent me 467,000 first shots and I had to figure out how to do it all,” McMahon said. “I’m not getting enough shots to be able to give it to everybody that is already in line, so that’s the challenge.”
Onondaga County had one new death in the last 24 hours from COVID-19. There were 101 new cases, there are 1,966 active cases, and the county’s seven-day positive rate was 2.7%, the lowest rate since Nov. 8.
