A health-care network with clinics in Boro Park, Bensonhurst and Williamsburg is under a criminal investigation for giving unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines, officials said Saturday.
ParCare Community Health Network “may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public,” state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a news release.
The statement came hours after The Post questioned a state health department spokesman about ParCare giving the coveted inoculations.
The network’s actions appear to violate the state’s plan to administer the limited supply of vaccines first to frontline healthcare workers, along with nursing home residents and staffers, Zucker said.
The state controls where, and to whom, the vaccine is distributed — and there isn’t enough for those who are supposed to be at the front of the line.
“The supply of COVID-19 vaccine remains limited and has not yet met demand among the groups prioritized for initial vaccination,” Dr. Jane Zucker, the city Health Department’s assistant commissioner for immunizations said Thursday.
Officials did not say how Schelsinger may have obtained the vaccine.
