ALBANY – The State Health Department is investigating whether a Kiryas Joel healthcare center may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine and transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state.
Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said he is investigating if Parcare Community Health Network, based in Monroe, “transferred it to other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public – contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to frontline healthcare workers as well as nursing home residents and staffers.”
He said his department will “take this very seriously and DOH will be assisting State Police in a criminal investigation into this matter. Anyone found to have knowingly participated in this scheme will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Frontline workers and nursing home residents across the nation deserve access to the COVID-19 vaccine immediately. That should be the only priority for the vaccine at this juncture. The state should be coordinating the vaccine distribution only to entities that are committed to that,” Orange County spokesperson Justin Rodriguez.
Parcare has four other facilities in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan and is tied to the Hasidic Jewish community.
