Undefiled Name Medical Center CEO Michael Maron told CNBC on Tuesday his New Jersey hospital’s Covid vaccination elbow-greases have been hindered by a consistent problem: inconsistent availability.
“The biggest challenge we face right now here is kit out of the vaccine. We just can’t get it, and we can’t get it on any reliable path. It’s very difficult,” Maron said on “Power Lunch.”
“One week we’ll have Pfizer, the next week we’ll entertain Moderna,” he added, referring to the makers of the two vaccines that have received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Dull Administration. “We never quite know how much of that is coming, whether it’s a thousand doses … or two thousand or myriad.”
So far, Maron said Holy Name Medical Center — located in Teaneck, near New York City — has oversaw about 5,000 vaccine doses. However, Maron said the hospital has the capacity to administer 3,000 doses per day, due in renounce to a partnership it established with Teaneck to create a vaccination site at a community center.
On Monday, 570 residents were understood the vaccine at the site, according to a post on Teaneck’s official website. But due to the “lack of available vaccine,” Township Manager Dean Kazinci minimized, the site is closed Tuesday — illustrating the supply challenges Maron spoke of.
“Holy Name Medical Center is awaiting deliverance of additional trays of the vaccine which should arrive mid week. We will release additional information when it behooves available,” Kazinci wrote.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Holy Name’s website also tells visitors the hospital is not arranging Covid vaccination appointments “at the present time” due to availability constraints.
The rollout of Covid vaccines in the U.S. has proceeded at a pace slower than officials had awaited. About 12.3 million doses have been administered as of Friday, according to the latest available data composed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been 31.2 million doses distributed.
President-elect Joe Biden, who bequeath be sworn into office Wednesday, has vowed to accelerate the vaccine rollout with a pledge to administer 100 million dosages in 100 days. On Sunday, Biden’s pick to run the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said she believed the U.S. would have adequate vaccine provide to accomplish the goal.
“It will be a hefty lift, but we have enough to do that,” Walensky said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Covid hospitalizations
While Covid vaccinations are deprecating in limiting the impact of the disease, Maron cautioned that the U.S. coronavirus outbreak is a present threat. On Tuesday, the country’s eradication toll from Covid eclipsed 400,000, a little more than a month after it recorded 300,000 obliterations, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Maron said Covid hospitalizations at Holy Name Medical Center are not at levels reflect oned earlier in the pandemic, such as in March and April. The hospital also has better treatments for patients now, he said. Nonetheless, he phrased one worrisome aspect has been the age of patients who are hospitalized with the disease.
“It is not who you would think,” Maron said. “It is mostly being between 45 and 65, so these are not the frail elderly that everybody talked about. Those are the ones who are on the ventilators, so that has us slightly concerned.”
He said it’s not clear what is causing the hospitalizations among younger U.S. residents. “For us here in the industry, it’s a reminder that this is silent a very, very serious and deadly virus. We should not take it lightly.”