The NYPD, although it would receive the COVID vaccine this week, will have to wait to get it, Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Tuesday.
The city’s top official told reporters at One Police Plaza on Tuesday that the department “relies on the health department and the city to advise us when we are in line.”
NYPD sign with logo on police patrol car in New York City.
(NYPD)
“We definitely appreciate that everyone wants to get it, and we have to wait for our fair turn and that’s what we do,” Shea said. “But we are waiting for it and want it as soon as possible.”
A memo circulated Monday within the union Detectives Endowment Association and obtained by the New York Post said the delay was due to supply chain problems.
“The state has not released the vaccine in the amount needed for the NYPD,” reads part of the memo. “We have made numerous efforts to gather updated information, and as we learn more about its availability, we will immediately keep our members informed of the new date and the method of distribution.”
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Asked about the plan to get the vaccine to members of the NYPD, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city’s priority right now is “frontline health workers and people in nursing homes and those working in nursing homes.”
“But I want to see us get to our first reaction as soon as possible,” de Blasio said. ‘We are therefore waiting for the guidelines of the state. And as soon as that happens, we’ll get the effort going. ‘
Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, blasted the delay, accusing ‘politicians in Albany and City Hall’ of ‘wasting time with bureaucratic gymnastics instead of looking at reality on the ground’.
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“New York police officers are not just at the forefront. We cover all parts of the front line: from hospitals and housing complexes to the store,” Lynch said in a statement. “We have more contact with New Yorkers daily than any other city agency. We continue to make vaccination available to police officers as soon as possible.”