GNYHA is providing recent updates from New York State on its COVID-19 vaccine program. For a compilation of recent COVID-19 vaccine distribution updates and guidance, please see GNYHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination page.
New Required Vaccine Reporting
Starting today (Tuesday, January 5), the New York State Department of Health (DOH) is requiring all health care providers enrolled in the COVID-19 vaccine program to complete the NYS Vaccine Tracker between 12:00 a.m. (midnight) and 10:00 a.m. daily, seven days a week. This includes providers that have enrolled in the vaccine program but have not received vaccines to date.
The information submitted should reflect all vaccine-related activity that took place on the previous day (new vaccine receipts, redistributions, administrations, waste, and inventory count). The information submitted in the State’s Vaccine Tracker is in addition to—not in replacement of—the information submitted to the two Immunization Systems in the State of New York (NYSIIS and CIR).
For Pfizer and Moderna, health care providers must provide the following information:
- Vaccines received
- Vaccines redistributed, as authorized by DOH
- Vaccines administered
- Vaccines discarded
- Vaccines on hand
If you have questions about filling out this form, please contact DOH at vaccinetracker@health.ny.gov.
Home Care Workers Included in Week 4 Guidance
DOH’s updated Week 4 guidance (attached) includes, in this week’s prioritization groups, home care workers and aides, hospice workers, personal care aides, and consumer-directed personal care workers. This guidance supersedes and replaces previous Weeks 1-4 guidance.
Unused Vaccine Supply
New York State issued a new directive (attached) this week requiring hospitals to administer their COVID-19 vaccine within one week of receiving it. If a hospital fails to do so, remaining doses will be redistributed to other facilities and the hospital will be subject to a $100,000 fine. All vaccine in inventory prior to January 4, including prior set-asides, must be fully administered to eligible priority populations by the end of day on January 7, 2021. Any of these doses that are not administered by end of day on January 7 will be redistributed to another facility.
The DOH directive asks that any facilities unable to administer all doses within one week please contact covidvaccinenotused@health.ny.gov. DOH staff will assist with redistribution. Inability to administer all vaccine may impact future allocations. GNYHA will work with DOH and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to help ensure that hospitals use their vaccine supplies in a timely manner. Please contact the GNYHA vaccine team if your hospital is concerned about depleting your vaccine supply
Updated Vaccine/Attestation Form
DOH has posted an updated New York State COVID-19 Vaccine Form that individuals must complete prior to receiving vaccine. The form includes an attestation of vaccine priority group eligibility, which GNYHA presumes will be updated weekly as the State expands the vaccine-eligible priority groups. This form can be completed online, after which a submission ID will be received, or the form can be filled out at a vaccination site.
Resources
GNYHA COVID-19 Community, Patient, and Health Care Worker Health Education Toolkit
The COVID-19 Community, Patient, and Health Care Worker Health Education Toolkit is designed to give health education specialists in our hospital systems and community hospitals access to COVID-related materials for their communities, patients, and workers. The resources include flyers, posters, and fact sheets on COVID-19 vaccine, COVID-19 symptoms, public health mitigation efforts, testing, and contact tracing. When available, we have included these materials in various languages.