New York has administered less than a third of the coronavirus vaccine doses so far – even though Mayor de Blasio boldly claimed Thursday that he would vaccinate one million city residents within a month.
About 630,000 doses of vaccine have been sent to the Empire State, but only 203,000 doses have entered New Yorkers’ arms since Wednesday, according to state data.
The figure, about 32 percent, is slightly higher than the national rate, with about 22.5 percent of the 12.4 million doses distributed as of Wednesday administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In New York City, about 88,000 people have received a first dose in the past three weeks as the vaccine was given to health care workers and nursing home residents.
“We are far, far behind where we need to be,” said board member Mark Levine, chairman of the New York City Health Committee.
Levine noted that the Big Apple has 500,000 health workers in the high-risk category alone.
“We have to vaccinate 400,000 people a week,” he told The Post, calling the vaccination effort “the biggest challenge of the pandemic.”
De Blasio promised on Thursday that many more people will get the chance next month.
“We’re going to vaccinate 1 million New Yorkers,” de Blasio told CNN.
“More and more people want the vaccine and we’re going to do it,” he said, calling the campaign a ‘call to arms’.
However, the city only received 347,525 doses on Thursday.
To achieve the stated goal of the mayor, officials will need to devise a well-coordinated effort of planning and mobilization, said Ayman el-Mohandes, dean of the CUNY School of Public Health.
“It’s feasible, but it will take a lot of organization,” el-Mohandes said.
Vaccinating the 500,000 health workers and first responders in the city is ‘the easiest part’, El-Mohandes added – because they are a captive public that you can report to work.
But it is more difficult to get the elderly and other private citizens vaccinated.
“All of the stages depend on human behavior,” el-Mohandes said. “How are you going to reach these people?”
Even among health care facilities, it appears that there were persons who needed to be vaccinated.
Brahim Ardolic, chief executive of Staten Island University Hospital, said Thursday that of the 6,500 employees in the hospital, just under 2,000 have been vaccinated.
“We would like to get more doses from the state,” Ardolic said. “I have people who want to be vaccinated.”
“I would like to get 6,500 pieces on my doorstep, but I do not expect it.”
New York government officials said they received vaccines from the feds weekly, expecting them to have enough for those who received their first dose, after the three to four weeks needed between the two shots.
Officials noted that about 221,000 of the 630,000 doses were sent by CVs and Walgreens for the federal program to vaccinate residents of nursing homes – and claim that the state-run effort is moving much faster.
“New York has had one of the most successful vaccines compared to other states,” said Cuomo government adviser Rich Azzopardi.
“The goal is to make sure nothing is on the shelf.”
The Trump administration’s health officials have been discussing a goal for the past few weeks to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of enough doses by 2020.
However, according to the CDC, only about 2.8 million first doses have been administered since Wednesday, although officials said there has been a delay in reporting for some states.
“We agree that the number is lower than we had hoped,” Moncef Slaoui, one of the heads of Operation Warp Speed, told a news conference on Wednesday.
“We know it has to get better, and we’re working hard to make it better.”
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy and Lia Eustachewich