The New York State Department of Health (DOH) issued updated guidance (attached) aligning with the expanded COVID-19 vaccination eligibility as of April 6 to all individuals who reside, study, or work in New York who are age 16 and older. All providers enrolled in the New York State vaccine program may vaccinate any eligible individual.
Please note that only Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for use by individuals 16 and 17 years old. Individuals 16 and 17 years old are not permitted to receive Moderna or Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine.
Individuals 16 and 17 years old are considered minors and need parental or guardian consent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, except in the rare instance where the minor is part of a group to whom the law gives the right to consent to their own care (e.g., married minors, minors who are parents or pregnant, and minors in the military). Verbal consent is allowed, and if a minor is unaccompanied, a parent or guardian must be available by phone at the time of the minor’s vaccination to provide consent to the provider.
The updated guidance also includes a message for COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial sites, reminding providers that all COVID-19 vaccines administered in New York State must be entered in the New York State Immunization Information System or the Citywide Immunization Registry as applicable. This includes any doses administered as part of an experimental arm of a clinical trial and doses offered and administered to participants in the control group (who originally received a placebo) after the clinical trial ended or at other times per trial protocol.
Haiou Needle Issues and Replacement Requests
DOH sent an e-mail to vaccine providers earlier this week to note that New York State is no longer using Haiou needles due to reported bending or breaking issues. Haiou brand needles are no longer being added to ancillary kits, but current inventory and new shipments should be checked for the next few weeks. Please remove any Haiou needles from your inventory.
To request replacement needles, please e-mail the following to covid19vaccine@health.ny.gov with the subject line “Haiou needle replacement request”:
- Contact name
- Facility name
- Pin #
- Full delivery address (street, city, state, zip code)
- Quantity of each size (1” or 1.5”)
FDA Authorization of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine EUA Amendment and Updated Factsheets
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized an amendment to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorization (EUA) clarifying the number of doses available per vial for the Moderna multi-dose vials currently in use: 10-dose vials with a maximum extraction of 11 doses. The amendment also authorizes the use of multi-dose vials that contain a maximum of 15 doses. The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine factsheet for health care providers administering vaccine has been updated to reflect the updated EUA.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine recipient factsheet has also been updated to reflect additional severe allergic reactions to the risks and to add details regarding administration fees and reporting suspected vaccine fraud.
For a compilation of recent guidance, please visit GNYHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination Guidance webpage.