Newsman: Fifteen city-run vaccination sites in New York City have been forced to close due to lack of vaccine. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that New York City will run out the vaccine tomorrow the Friday. But “We are not getting any assurance of vaccine supply. We are capable to administration vaccine as soon as in a matter of a day if vaccine is available.” Mayor said in an Interview with CNN this evening.
The city is set to open more mega-vaccination centers at Citi Field, Empire Outlets, and Yankee Stadium, but will be unable to do so without a resupply. The city has a goal of vaccinating 1 million people by the end of the month, and is currently vaccinating at a pace of 300,000 a week.
But they will be unable to meet that goal without supply. He also said that However, if given the ability to give out the vaccines being reserved for second doses, they would be able to put 65,000 doses into play.
Governor Andrew Cuomo meanwhile said that the state is running out of its supply. Late Wednesday afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state’s supply of vaccine is about to run out.
“At this rate, we only have two or three days of supply,” Cuomo said. “We will start to get the next week’s allocation, but what’s clear now is that we are going to be going from week to week.”
However, Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Hochul says it could be July before the vaccine is available to the general public. The state authority says, as of now, it is vaccinating about 65,000 people per day.
Mayor Blasio is requesting from the federal government the ability to use second doses as first doses. Mayor de Blasio “We need to rethink the approach in this moment,” he said. “We need to be agile and creative to address the challenge at hand.”
The mayor said the goal is to vaccinate 50,000 residents of public housing over age 65, over the next few weeks and that effort is underway.
“We have had to reschedule 23,000 New Yorkers, and tell them that they will not be able to get that appointment due to lack of supply,” de Blasio said.
Thousands of appointments have been cancelled, and now questions are being asked about those second doses.
The vaccine mega-site at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, city’s five 24-hour facilities, has reopened with limited appointments has reopened after closing for several days.
But with 93 percent of the state’s vaccine supply now exhausted, both the city and the state are on pace to run out of vaccines.
There are 300,000 shots waiting in storage for second doses.
The city is now considering giving them as first doses for those still waiting and backfilling the supply and delaying by a few weeks the second shot for those who already gotten the first.
Meantime, the city’s teachers’ union is now warning that vaccine shortages could delay the opening of New York City schools in September.
“Increased availability of the vaccine is the key to fully re-opening everything, from schools to businesses,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.
As of right now, the plan is to reopen schools with widespread vaccinations.
Teachers are currently eligible to get the shot, but many are finding it hard to get an appointment
The shortage is causing New York city to fall short of its vaccination goals. And the mayor is now suggesting some who have already received their first shot may have to delay their second dose so others can get a first dose. New York City has vaccinated 494,596 people so far for COVID-19. The New York City authority says, despite all this, people are encouraged to keep making appointments.
Meanwhile, due to delay in Moderna vaccine shipments, Even the NYPD and FDNY have cancelled some of their appointments. The departments hopes to resume first dose vaccinations ones more vaccine supply is received. The Department expects to receive more, but we are uncertain as to the arrival date and quantity at this time according to the
Mayor Bill de Blasio said, As a result of an already existing shortage and the Moderna delay, the NYPD is halting first dose vaccinations.
“Effective immediately, due to a statewide shortage, the department will temporarily cease the first dose of distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said an internal message distributed to officers Wednesday morning.
The city also has rescheduled nearly 23,000 appointments originally set for today through Sunday and the appointments will be rescheduled for the same times next week, he added.
Meanwhile, The Aqueduct Race Track in Ozone Park, Queens opened as one of New York’s state-run COVID vaccination facilities on Monday despite the current shortage of vaccines and the site is still accepting appointments for those who are eligible.
Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Hochul toured the facility Thursday morning.
She said the state says it doesn’t anticipate closing any of its facilities because officials are scheduling those appointments to account for the shortage.
Mayor de Blasio said that he has faith that the Biden Administration will be able to get an increase in production and supply. He said, the positivity rate for COVID-19 in the city is at 8.53%.
The NYPD started vaccinating officers Monday and vaccinated 12,000 officers in the first four days alone. Officers who already got the first shots will be able to get their second shots three weeks afterward.
The FDNY said they would be following suit and also halting first dose vaccinations starting on 1/25. It has first dose appointments booked through 1/24. Second dose appointments began Wednesday. Second dose appointments were expected to continue past 1/24. And so far, 7,000 FDNY members have received the vaccine.
