NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- President Joe Biden's plan to increase states' COVID-19 vaccine supplies by 16 percent starting next week is "very good news," but "not enough," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
In an interview with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace Tuesday afternoon, Cuomo said he learned about Biden's plan on a call with the National Governors Association earlier in the day.
Vaccine allotments to states will increase by 16 percent for at least the next three weeks, the governor said, but New York state needs more doses than that to meet the current demand.
"I can now turn around and tell my distributors, you're going to get 16 percent more for the next three weeks, so that's good news," he said. "Is 16 percent going to make the difference for those states that can administer the vaccines at a higher rate? No. At this rate, we're talking about months and months, obviously."
"And I think it's important to remember, you used the expression federal production, the federal government is not producing this drug. It's Pfizer, it's modern, hopefully Johnson & Johnson gets approved, but they don't have the factory under federal control and that's the problem," he added. "They have inherited, I believe, a flawed production schedule that they're now going to have to work with."
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said health officials may have to delay administering second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by two weeks amid dwindling supplies.
Biden on Tuesday also said his administration would increase the number of COVID-19 vaccines the U.S. is purchasing, to ensure 300 million Americans can be vaccinated by the end of the summer.
