Rockland County, New York, a densely populated suburban enclave immediately north of New York City, remains one of the states COVID-19 hot spots.

With an official tally of more than 41,000 positive infections since the start of the pandemic, the 325,000-person county has the highest per-capita case rate in the state. In the past seven days alone, the countys average number of daily cases is the sixth-highest in the state outside of New York City.

Thats why the countys leaders and representatives in both Albany and Washington are wondering why Gov. Andrew Cuomo s (D) administration has not yet erected even a temporary state-run mass vaccination site there.

Its frustrating, said Ed Day, the Republican executive of Rockland County. The numbers demand it, frankly. You just shake your head and get quizzical after a while.

But though the state has announced plans to set up vaccination sites in Orange County as well as Ulster County, which is much more sparsely populated than Rockland plans for a similar facility in Rockland have not been forthcoming. Other counties with smaller populations, such as Albany County, where the capital is located, already have a mass vaccination site.

Given the puzzling absence of a vaccine site in the county and conversations that Cuomos vaccine czar Larry Schwartz has reportedly had with other county officials to assess their political loyalty to Cuomo, some Rocklanders believe that Cuomo is depriving the county of a mass vaccination state to punish Day, a political rival.