“Delivery partners are delivering, where possible, vaccination, depending on local conditions, but the adverse weather is expected to continue to affect the shipment of the FedEx facility in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as the UPS facility in Louisville, Ken. “which serve as vaccination centers for different countries,” CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in a statement.
“CDC and federal partners are working closely with the jurisdictions, as well as manufacturing and shipping partners, to evaluate weather conditions and help reduce potential delays and cancellations,” she said.
White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients urged vaccination sites Wednesday to compensate for hours for the weather delays.
“The weather has an impact,” Zients said. “It has an impact on the distribution and deliveries of the delivery companies and the distribution companies. People work as hard as they can, given the importance of getting the vaccines to the states and suppliers, but there is an impact on deliveries. . ”
Weather-related delays can last two weeks
Delays in the delivery of Covid-19 due to the weather could continue “for the next week to two weeks,” Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN on Wednesday.
“The two largest suppliers involved here – UPS and FedEx – have large hubs or warehouses in the south, in Memphis and in other areas. We therefore expect that the delivery of the vaccine that is back may decrease. Freeman said.
Freeman said the weather-related problems were briefly discussed Tuesday during a call between local health officials and the Biden government.
FedEx and UPS Emergency Plans
In a statement Wednesday, FedEx said it had “emergency plans in place to reduce the effects of inclement weather on operations and service, and we are implementing those plans as best we can.”
The company said the weather affected a large portion of its U.S. network, including pickups and deliveries in certain cities.
“We have contingency planning in place related to the movement of vaccines, which have preferential status in our network, and work directly with our customers to ensure their safe transport and delivery,” the statement said.
UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara said in a statement that pickups and deliveries will be made “once conditions are safe.”
“UPS’s air network operates normally, and our ground operations normally operate in areas where road conditions allow,” the statement said.
“We have extensive emergency plans for storms that help us keep goods going when roads are impassable or airports closed due to severe weather.”
The UPS meteorological team is working with its health care commando center and contingency teams to predict weather conditions and divert cargo transportation to keep vaccines “on track and on time,” the statement said.
NYC to ‘run out’ of doses, says Mayor
According to Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City on Wednesday had less than 30,000 first doses on hand due to weather-related shipments.
“It means we run out – today, tomorrow – run out,” de Blasio said of the vaccine supply.
“On top of that, we have the weather problem, all over the country there are big storms that delay the shipment.”
Vaccines expected Tuesday and Wednesday have been delayed, he said. Some 30,000 to 35,000 appointments – or even more – may not have been scheduled as a result.
“We’ll have to hold back appointments that New Yorkers need,” de Blasio said.
The city administered 1,395,956 doses, more than the total population of Dallas, Texas.
In Florida, 200,000 doses are delayed
According to Florida officials, the winter weather nationwide blamed the shipment of 200,000 doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine doses, according to Florida Department of Health spokesman Jason Mahon.
The shipment would arrive on Tuesday, Mahon said.
The state notified vaccine providers of the delay and asked them to recreate appointments instead of canceling them, Mahon said.
According to Mahon, Florida expects to receive the full award of the vaccine next week.
More than 43,000 appointments were affected in Indiana when 80 clinics were closed
The closure of 80 clinics in Indiana due to the inclement weather has affected more than 43,000 vaccine appointments, said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, Indiana medical chief, said Wednesday.
Weaver said this week that the state has also experienced delays in vaccinating vaccines due to the weather. The state has not received its Modern vaccines for this week, and according to Weaver, the appointments need to be rescheduled.
Indiana will be eligible for vaccines at age 65 until delivery is back on schedule. Then the state plans to be eligible for ages 60 to 65, Weaver said.
“We’ll see how the weather affects our shipments, but hopefully we’ll be able to expand so quickly next week,” Weaver said.
President Biden: ‘Vaccination will be widely available by the end of July’
“What’s going to happen is that it will continue to increase as we move forward. We will have reached 400 million doses by the end of May and 600 million by the end of July,” Biden told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Milwaukee.
Biden predicted that life at Christmas would mostly be normal again.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Sara Weisfeld and Rosa Flores contributed to this report.