Plans to turn Yankee Stadium and Citi Field into large-scale coronavirus vaccination sites have been officially postponed indefinitely, while 15 existing city inoculation centers will remain closed while New York continues to fight the supply shortages, officials said Monday.
The setbacks are the latest blows to the launch of trouble-filled New York vaccines, recently hampered by a delayed supply of shots from the federal government and manufacturer Moderna, forcing the city to reschedule tens of thousands of appointments when it became clear that no there were enough punctures by hand.
“We want to get operations complete 24 hours a day, but we don’t have the vaccine,” Mayor Bill de Blasio of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field said during a press conference Monday.
Hizzoner did not set a new opening date for the sites, instead saying it was tied to when the city receives a comprehensive supply of vaccines to support operations.
Meanwhile, 15 vaccination centers covering the five districts closed due to a shortage of supplies last week will remain closed until Thursday, city councilor Mark Levine, head of the council’s health committee, revealed in a tweet.
These places were previously closed last Thursday, provisionally until January 24, when Moderna’s weekly shipment did not arrive on time. Appointments that were canceled at the sites should go ahead this week, starting Thursday.
The lack of sufficient features by the feds follows previous problems about the state and the city, including Albany’s heavy restrictions on who could receive the vaccine and a complicated online registration process that confuses many seniors.