Mayor Bill de Blasio sounded the alarm on Friday because New York City will run out of the coveted COVID-19 vaccine for next week.
“We will finish next week. I tell you, at this rate, there will be no dose in New York City by the end of next week if we don’t get a significant supply [of vaccine]”He said of Blasio during his weekly guest spot on WNYC’s“ The Brian Lehrer Show ”.
Hizzoner explained that the Big Apple has received a supply of 100,000 doses per week “very evil” and that the city has spent 125,000 shots “the first four days of this week.”
“Every day the number of people we can vaccinate increases,” said de Blasio, who noted that about 34,000 people were inoculated into the city on Wednesday.
“If we don’t get a serious supply, we will have to stop ordering appointments, as happened at Mount Sinai Hospital and NYU-Langone,” de Blasio said. “If there is no supply, we will have to freeze the dating system. It would be crazy. “
Two of the city’s largest hospital systems, NYU-Langone and Mount Sinai, no longer book vaccine appointments at the moment and all systems are expected to run out of vaccine by the end of next week without supply, he said. ‘mayoralty.
Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital was forced to leave behind those who wanted to get wrapped up this week even though people had appointments to receive the shot.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who spoke Friday later during his own press conference, explained that there are now 7 million New Yorkers eligible to receive the vaccine, but that there is a delay due to inadequate supply. ‘State only receives about 300,000 weekly doses from the federal government.
“It’s like opening a sluice and putting it through a syringe,” said Cuomo, who added that the state received less than 250,000 shots this week.
At this rate, it will take six months to vaccinate all those currently eligible, the governor said.
“Seven million people are chasing 250,000 doses,” Cuomo said. “This is the math problem you can’t solve.”
Of the 827,715 doses administered statewide, 731,285 were first doses, while 96,430 were second doses of the two-dose vaccine, Cuomo said, citing state data.
Cuomo said anyone who has received their first dose should not “worry” about not being able to get their second dose, although supply is limited.
“We make sure we have a second dose for whoever gets the first dose,” he said.
Commenting on De Blasio’s claims that New York is on the verge of running out of vaccine supplies, Cuomo said: “I don’t know exactly what the mayor was talking about … Some facilities are working on their previous supply “.
“Many New York City facilities have [vaccine] unused assignment, “Cuomo said.
The governor added that New York City will receive more doses next week, “but it will be lower because the overall allocation is lower.”
Data from the city to Friday show that of the 800,500 doses delivered so far to the Big Apple, 337,518 shots have gone to people, about 42%.
The city has administered 71.3 percent of the 175,000 vaccines it intended to distribute by the end of this weekend, according to the mayor, who said that as of Friday, the Big Apple has less than 186,000 first doses left. .