New York City has just 7,710 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine left, prompting Mayor Bill de Blasio to beg the federal government to allow him to give out supplies currently reserved for second shots.
The vaccine supply for first doses had dwindled to 7,710 in NYC as of Tuesday, according to the city’s health department.
There are currently 202,119 shots put aside for those who need to receive their second dose of the vaccine.
De Blasio has argued that he should be able to start handing out the reserved doses while the city waits for its next vaccine shipment.
He has asked the federal government for authorization to do so.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has argued that he should be able to start handing out the reserved doses while the city waits for its next vaccine shipment. The vaccine supply for first doses had dwindled to 7,710 as of Tuesday
‘I’d rather give more people some protection than fewer people full protection,’ de Blasio said.
He acknowledged that it could potentially mean delays for people waiting to receive their second shot.
‘Even if we have to say to people, ‘Your second dose is going to be slightly delayed,’ it’s still better to get a first dose in as many people’s arms as possible to give them that 50 percent protection,’ de Blasio said.
‘Otherwise, what we’re left with is a situation where we can do very few vaccinations at all. We’re just stuck right now because we don’t have supply.’
The Mayor had earlier tweeted the city could be doing more if it wasn’t for vaccine shortages.
‘New York City has now vaccinated more people than the entire population of Portland, Oregon. We could be doing MUCH more,’ he tweeted.
The city handed out just over 7,000 first doses and 8,800 second doses on Monday.
Given the supply shortages, the city is on track to fall short of de Blasio’s goal of one million vaccinations by the end of the month.
The city handed out just over 7,000 first doses and 8,800 second doses on Monday
The vaccine supply for first doses had dwindled to 7,710 in NYC as of Tuesday, according to the city’s health department. There are currently 202,119 shots put aside for those who need to receive their second dose of the vaccine
It comes as an increasing number of vaccination sites across the country have been canceling appointments due to shortages.
New York is among the sites who have had to cancel appointments.
States waited to find out their latest weekly allocation of vaccine from the federal government on Tuesday amid complaints from governors and top health officials about inadequate supplies and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates of how much is on the way.
Amid the rising frustration, the White House scheduled its first virus-related call with the nation’s governors on Tuesday.
The president planned to give an update on efforts to bolster the vaccine supply and put more shots into Americans’ arms more quickly, press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The weekly allocation cycle for first doses begins on Monday nights, when federal officials review data on vaccine availability from manufacturers to determine how much each state can have. Allocations are based on each jurisdiction’s population of people 18 and older.
States are notified on Tuesdays of their allocations through a computer network called Tiberius and other channels, after which they can specify where they want doses shipped. Deliveries start the following Monday.
A similar but separate process for ordering second doses, which must be given three to four weeks after the first, begins each week on Sunday night.
A total of 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines were handed out in the United States yesterday. The seven-day rolling average for daily COVID-19 vaccinations nationwide is currently at 1.3 million
So far 7.1 percent of the US population has been vaccinated. In total, 23.4 million vaccine doses have been administered, which is 56 percent of the 41.4 million shots already distributed to states by the federal government
The US has now vaccinated 7.1 percent of its population after an additional 1.1 million shots were handed out on Monday. The seven-day rolling average for daily COVID-19 vaccinations nationwide is currently at 1.3 million.
So far 23.4 million vaccine doses have been administered, which is 56 percent of the 41.4 million shots already distributed to states by the federal government.
Despite the rough start, the number of shots being handed out nationwide has been increasing since the rollout began in mid-December under Trump’s administration. Since January 1, the average number of vaccine doses per day has quadrupled.
It comes as Moderna said on Tuesday it was on track to deliver about 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the US by March and another 100 million by June.
The company, which signed a purchase agreement with the US for 200 million doses, said it has supplied 30.4 million doses of its vaccine so far.
According to CDC data, only 10 million of those Moderna vaccines have actually be distributed.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which both require two doses, are currently the only ones being offered in the US.
Shots made by Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which only require one dose, have not been approved by the FDA but both are expected to be within the next few months.
Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it expected to report eagerly-awaited data on its COVID-19 vaccine early next week and that it would be able to meet the delivery target for doses to countries with which it had signed supply agreements.