Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Friday that the vaccine supply COVID-19 will run out by the end of next week. The shortage would disrupt the mayor’s goal of administering 1 million doses in the five districts by the end of January, which would set the prospect of quickly establishing herd immunity and reopening safely.
“We’ll run out of New York City’s vaccine next week if there is not a very different approach than the federal government, and the state government and the manufacturers,” de Blasio said on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. “We will not have enough vaccine by the end of next week.”
A source in the de Blasio government told Gothamist that the city currently has 186,000 doses on hand. At the current rate of delivery of doses, the city’s inventory will run out by 21 January.
This morning, de Blasio pointed out that the shortage of vaccines even hospitals like Mt. Sinai and NYU Langone of discussing new appointments. A review of the hospitals’ websites confirms this. Mt. Sinai was also the cancellation of your appointments.
Earlier Friday, the Trump administration conceded that the country’s vaccine reserves had run out last weekend, long before the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it would release stock doses. It is unclear when the federal government may run out of more vials, which could delay access for millions of people still waiting to receive the vaccine. This includes those in the Phase 1b category, the largest of the group in Phase 1 of the state’s vaccination plan.
The city of New York has staged vaccinations across New York after opening about 160 vaccination centers, including several 24/7 websites to vaccinate as many as 7,000 people with the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. About 250 vaccination centers will open nationwide by the end of the month. Between Monday and Thursday, 125,000 people were shot, de Blasio said. He expects more than 175,000 people to be vaccinated this week, surpassing the target he set on Monday.
We will run out # COVID-19 vaccines next week.
We know that there are unused doses in this country.
We know that New York City is quickly getting doses to people.
The federal government must NOW send the doses we need.
– Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) 15 January 2021
De Blasio said anyone still coming for their first appointment would get a second appointment for now, given the waiting period of three and four weeks between the second shots for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna respectively.
“But the growing problem now is that there is not enough vaccine to keep up with the first appointment, let alone the second appointment,” de Blasio said.
Currently, the city receives 100,000 doses, which members of the New York City Council and de Blasio call a meager amount.