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Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro issued an email at approximately 4:22 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26 announcing that the county will receive 600 doses of COVID-19 vaccinations this week, with a Point of Dispensing Vaccination Center scheduled to be set up on Thursday, Jan. 28 at the former JCPenney store at Poughkeepsie Galleria.
Minutes later, at approximately 4:27 p.m., a second email was sent to the community advising that all appointments had been filled and booked. The county is expected to receive a new allocation next week, though it is unclear how many doses will be made available as the state goes week-to-week depending on how many vaccine doses are distributed by the federal government.
“Our POD vaccination sites ran smoothly and efficiently thanks to our dedicated public health staff and our amazing MRC volunteers,” Molinaro said. “We are ready and eager to ramp up our distribution and will continue to push to receive more vaccine so we can get as many shots in arms of our residents as quickly as possible. Please continue to stay safe and remain patient as we work to get more vaccine.”
Dutchess, like the rest of the state, continues to struggle with a lack of supply of the vaccine and a mass demand of those looking to receive the vaccination. Currently, New York has been receiving between 250,000 to 300,000 allocations each week, which are then distributed around the state based on a region’s population.
Last week, Dutchess received 700 of the 250,400 doses allocated to New York by the federal government.
"Vaccine availability remains extremely limited,” Molinaro said. ”Although we have the capacity to vaccinate thousands of residents each week, we can only vaccinate as many people as we receive vaccine doses for.
“We will continue to push for more vaccine, but in the meantime, we are dispensing every dose we get to eligible residents quickly and efficiently at our POD vaccination centers.”
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