As the United States recorded 4,033 COVID-19 deaths Jan. 7 -- the first time over 4,000 -- the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also made a rare admission of error, saying the coronavirus vaccine rollout has not been going smoothly. "Things have been a little helter-skelter; I apologize for that, but this is a massive undertaking and it’s something unprecedented that we’re doing here," Larry Schwartz, a member of Cuomo's coronavirus task force, told county leaders on a conference call. "We’re going to work closely with the counties going forward and look to expand the role that counties play in the roll-out. … We’ll follow up with you on what that means." Schwartz, a former secretary to the governor, state health Commissioner Howard Zucker and Gareth Rhodes, a deputy superintendent, said that counties would take on a greater role with vaccinations, and receive more information. County officials on the call also said they were being forced to return unused doses of vaccines if they couldn't use them quickly enough to avoid hefty fines from the Cuomo administration. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy told a story about 30 vaccine doses that were "flushed down the toilet" recently when they went unused at a county nursing home. "I couldn't at that point get enough people there," McCoy said. After Cuomo administration officials said that someone should get the vaccines rather than dumping them, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin pushed back, saying that, "if that needle goes into the wrong arm there's a potential $1 million fine.... I know what you want to occur but until the chokehold is removed and the flexibility is given, you're going to continue to have doses spoil." Meanwhile, Greene County health officials reported 40 new COVID-19 cases there, and another death. The state's COVID-19 tracker website reported 52 new positive tests in Columbia County Jan. 7. Ulster County had 113 new coronavirus cases, and Dutchess County had 263 new cases. Rensselaer County had 182 new cases and another death, and Albany County had 298, and another death.