Over 20% of adults in Onondaga County have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. County Executive Ryan McMahon said it’s the highest rate of vaccinated residents among the big counties in New York. Despite the county’s effectiveness of getting shots into arms, some communities are lagging behind others.
McMahon said minority communities and City of Syracuse residents are still getting vaccinated at lower rates.
“We are getting zip code data to look at different gaps. We know the city of Syracuse is lagging overall when we look at the 74,000 shots to date. We’re going to work with the State of New York and look on some further strategies to address that.”
A pop-up clinic was held on the near Westside this week, and McMahon said they’ll continue to set up clinics where the data shows low vaccination rates. The pop up clinics are supplied by the state and do not affect the county’s weekly allotment. McMahon expects to receive around 19-hundred doses per week for the next few weeks. He said more of these doses will go to the recently eligible people with comorbidities.
“Right now, we have gotten some of these other groups that we’ve been vaccinating, we’re almost to the point where we’re done with those groups. So that frees up those vaccines to go to those with comorbidities even more.”
McMahon named educators, healthcare workers, and residents of long term care facility residents as some of the groups where almost everyone has received at least a first dose. He said getting an appointment for a vaccine is still not as easy as he wants it to be, but it is getting better.
