Nasty weather across the country is impacting the COVID-19 vaccination schedules in Broome County.

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County Executive Jason Garnar says the Health Department had to call some people that had appointments with the County’s vaccination pod at the SUNY Broome Ice Rink February 17 and reschedule their appointments for next week when the 800-first-dose shots for this week failed to arrive due to weather delays and road closures.

Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News
Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News
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United Health Services stepped in to cover 300 doses but that still left county health officials with the task of contacting people with appointments scheduled for later in the day to reschedule their shots.

Meanwhile, the County says it expects in the next week or two private health care providers may start to get vaccines and set up appointments with their patients.

The County Executive says Broome is well ahead of the game when it comes to vaccinations with about 12 percent of the residents, possibly some 23,000, being vaccinated compared to a state average of eight or nine percent.

Officials are expecting production and distribution of the various COVID-19 vaccines to ramp up substantially in the next several weeks.  Nationally, experts have been projecting vaccines will be widely available for anyone who wants them by summer.

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

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