Only 19,000 COVID-19 Vaccines Left for This Week in New York City | The State

“More, more and more!” That is a simple request that the New York City authorities are making to the federal government, to receive greater supplies of the vaccine against COVID-19 and thus be able to achieve the goal of immunizing at least 500,000 New Yorkers weekly.

Mayor Bill de Blasio warned this Monday that the outlook for this week that is just beginning was not very encouraging, since the City only has 19,032 quantities of the drug in its reserves for the first dose, and it is planned that a supply of just 107,825 vaccines arrives in the next few days, well below the half million New Yorkers who can be immunized.

“Right now the federal government is in constant communication with us to determine how you can increase supplies for us, and they are looking at all possible ways to make this move in a faster way, “said the Mayor, adding that he has high” hopes of receiving answers this week on how we can fundamentally change this reality. “

So far it seems difficult that the City achieves its goal of vaccinating at least 1 million people throughout January, since there is only one week left until the end of the month and only 628,831 New Yorkers since vaccination plan began.

“Our vaccination capacity is now more extensive than ever, but in addition to the supply problem we have, we also have a flexibility problem, since we cannot access the second dose reserves that we have stored for weeks, so that we can use them right now as first doses and thus cover the intense demand for vaccination ”, Explained De Blasio.

Third vaccine on the way

A good news that raised the hope of the authorities of the Big Apple that vaccination capacity will soon be increased, is that in approximately one week the Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical could have your new vaccine ready, which unlike those of Pfizer and Modern, only requires a single dose to be effective against coronavirus.

He Dr. Jay Varma, one of the Mayor’s main advisers, highlighted the fact that this Johnson & Johnson vaccine It will consist of a single dose, “it will represent an enormous change in the current reality, since it will exponentially increase the capacity of the City”, by achieving that the supplies become more than the demand, and thus be able to apply more and more vaccines.

The same positive tone was shared by the Health Commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, who assured that the City is already preparing “so that once this new vaccine is approved, we are ready to put Johnson & Johnson injections in as many arms as possible “.

Opening of ‘mega sites’ postponed

As with baseball games when it rains, both the Yankee Stadium how CitiField had to ‘postpone’ this week the important ‘play’ they had planned against an opponent they had never faced, COVID-19. Both stadiums were scheduled to open as ‘mega sites’ for vaccination 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but due to supply shortages this had to be canceled until further notice.

“These places are ready to operate at‘ full ’capacity right now, operating 24 hours a day, but we do not have the vaccines,” said the Mayor, explaining what the simple reality was. Another third mass vaccination center also planned to open this week was the ‘Empire Outlets’, in Staten Island.

As for the appointments that were canceled last week, more than 22,000, the authorities confirmed that the same people will receive a new one for the same time and on the same day this week.

Vaccination in NYC by the numbers:

• 19,032 doses are in reserve for this week.
• 107,825 doses will be sent by the federal government in the coming days.
• 500,000 is the weekly goal the City has set for itself.
• 628,831 total immunizations since the plan began.
• 1 million is the total goal for January.