Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday that the much-needed COVID-19 vaccine supply for New York City has been delayed again this week.
De Blasio said during a City Hall press conference that he expected a shipment of the first dose shots to arrive on Friday, but he found the word during the briefing that “Now we think we should have our first dose for this week by Sunday Can not be found. “
Typically, the city – which is already struggling with a vaccine shortage – receives its weekly shipment of two-dose shots from the federal government on Tuesday or Wednesday, de Blasio said.
“There are more delays because of the storm, because deliveries are not taking place,” said de Blasio, adding that “a vast majority expected for this week has not yet been shipped from factories.”
The city has already had to stop scheduling this week as 35,000 appointments for the coronavirus vaccine are made earlier due to shipment delays and vaccine shortages.
“Hopefully this season will pass over the next few days, across the country, and it will allow things to get back on track, but it is unfortunately delayed further, and has implications for one of them.” [vaccine] Sites, ”de Blasio said.
An already delayed new vaccination site at Queens’s Martin Van Buren High School was slated to open on Friday, but now it “will be delayed as soon as possible on Sunday,” the mayor said.
The new vaccine site at Empire Outlets in Staten Island will also open on Friday, as its Thursday date was postponed due to snowfall.
“This is a situation in which we usually put our hands to the mouth and then it is made worse by the storm,” De Blastio said. “That’s why we need a series of changes.”
Hizoner clarified, “We need direct shipment of the vaccine to New York City” and “We need fewer regulations from the state government that hold us back – more local control.”
“Unfortunately Mother Nature is now causing us the most immediate problem with supply delays,” he said. “We will, of course, overcome them and keep moving forward.”
The latest city data shows that the Big Apple currently has fewer than 17,500 dose shots on hand and more than 155,700 second dose shots on hand.
Officials said that typically, the city ships about 170,000 first dose vaccine shots per week.
The city has given nearly 1.4 million shots to New Yorkers since the vaccination efforts began in mid-December.
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