NIAGARA COUNTY (WKBW) — The Niagara County Department of Health announced it is expecting its largest COVID-19 vaccine shipment to date next week.
Niagara County Public Health Director Daniel J. Stapleton says the county is expecting to receive 6,500 first doses of the vaccine next week, the most the county has ever received for a single week.
5,000 of those doses are expected to be the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and 1,500 are expected to be the Moderna vaccine. Officials say the expected amount of doses would nearly double the total amount of the vaccine the county has received to date.
“As with everything regarding COVID-19, the situation can change in a minute and that happened last night when I was notified by New York State that we would be getting this huge shipment of vaccine, which is great news for our community,” said Stapleton.
Due to the increase in vaccine doses, the county says it will not be moving its Point of Dispensing (POD) clinic from Lockport to North Tonawanda. The POD will remain at the Kenan Arena in Lockport and will no longer be moved to the Gratwick Fire Hose Company #6 in North Tonawanda as previously reported.
Officials say the Kenan Arena can accomplish up to 2,500 vaccinations per day, the Gratwick site would only be able to accomplish 850.
“High volume point of dispensing operations require significant staffing and support from our staff, volunteers and partners,” said Stapleton. “Therefore, we are prioritizing our efforts on one high volume POD at a time to ensure the largest number of individuals are vaccinated in the shortest period of time.”
Stapleton said those with a second dose currently scheduled at Gratwick should have received an email from the health department notifying them they will now receive their second dose at the Kenan Arena at the same date and time as originally scheduled at Gratwick.
Vaccine appointments will not be available until the county receives the vaccine.
“We are not yet accepting appointments because our policy has consistently been not to schedule until we have the vaccine in hand to avoid having to cancel appointments if it does not arrive,” said Stapleton. “As soon as we confirm receipt, we will make an announcement that appointments are available. Residents can then go to niagaracounty.com, click on the blue box for vaccination info and then scroll down to step 1 to schedule."
You can schedule your appointment by clicking here and following the steps listed on the county's website.
