Fox Ramping Up

Vaccination Rate,

Spokesman Says

More Than 50 Percent Of Staff

Inoculated, Hospital Reports

By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – After being called out by Governor Cuomo on Monday, Fox Hospital and the Tri-Town Campus in Sidney have ramped up their rate of vaccinations.

On Monday, Cuomo alleged that the hospital had only used 18 percent of their COVID-19 vaccine allotment. Bassett spokeswoman Karen Huxtable-Hooker said the total was actually 30 percent at the time of the press conference.

Fox spokesman Gabrielle Argo updated these figures, reporting that 50 percent of the Fox staff has been vaccinated and 100 percent of the Tri-Town Campus staff had been vaccinated as of 2 p.m. today.

The original allotment received at Fox Hospital was 1,600 vaccinations, of which upwards of 800 doses have been administered since the hospital first received the Moderna supply on Dec. 22.

According to Argo, the hospitals received more doses than Tier-1 employees eligible to receive the vaccine per the state Department of Health.

“We are complying with state guidance as far as who can receive the vaccine when,” she said, adding everyone eligible to receive the vaccine has been invited to do so; the state is not yet mandating inoculation.

“People have been working very, very hard around the clock; numbers are changing by the hour,” Argo said.

The ever-evolving data, paired with issues within the portal itself, may be to blame for the divergence between Fox’s figures and those the governor used.

As of Monday, thresholds were established by the state and Argo says the hospitals have worked quickly to meet these expectations, “we are vaccinating as many people as we can,” expanding to also vaccinate EMS, fire, healthcare patient and non-patient and additional staff within the guidelines set by the state.

“We are balancing unprecedented hospitalizations paired with unprecedented vaccinations” and she has nothing but “respect” for her colleagues, she said.

“We are still unclear as to when the vaccine will be able to be distributed to the public, but we are taking steps to prepare for that so that we can hit the ground running,” she said.

In the meantime, vaccination clinics for eligible staff will continue to be operated. At this time there is no central database to track vaccine administration within the state.