NYC vaccinations centers may shut down Thursday over low supply, de Blasio warns
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced that
New York City is running low on vaccine supply.
"At the rate we are going, we will begin to run out on Thursday," de Blasio said during his briefing. "We will have literally nothing else to give as of Friday."
According to the mayor, the city currently has just 92,000 doses of the vaccine left and will receive an additional 53,000 doses later today, for a total of 116,000 available for the week ahead.
Vaccination centers will be forced to shut down on Thursday once they run out.
"If we don't get more vaccines quickly, we will have to cancel appointments and no longer give shots for the remainder of the week at a lot of our sites," de Blasio said.
The pace of vaccination continues to increase, according to the mayor. As of Sunday, a person is getting vaccinated every three seconds.
If the city receives a resupply, 300,000 additional people can be vaccinated this week, de Blasio estimates.
"If we don't' get more vaccines quickly, we will have to cancel appointments and no longer give shots for the remainder of the week.
The city is set to receive another batch of vaccines next Tuesday and closed sites would not reopen until Wednesday, de Blasio warned as he called on the Federal government for support.
"This is not the way it should be," de Blasio said. "We have the ability to vaccinate a huge number of people, we need the vaccine to go with it.
Last week, 220,000 New Yorkers were vaccinated in the city, for a total of 455,737, de Blasio said.
On Tuesday night, the city will remember those lost to COVID-19 with church bells set to ring across the city, and buildings will be lit up to memorialize those lost to the virus.
