NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – "Nearly all" of the COVID-19 vaccine doses that were scheduled to be delivered to New York state between Feb. 12 and Feb. 21 are delayed because of winter storms impacting much of the U.S., Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
The governor said late Thursday that the federal government had informed the state about the delay for week 10 vaccine allocations.
"Every dose that should have shipped on Monday was held back, and only a limited number of Pfizer vaccines left shipping facilities on Tuesday and Wednesday," the governor said in a statement.
Cuomo said the delay will "undoubtedly pose a logistical challenge for New York."
He said the state Department of Health is working with providers—including local health departments, hospitals, pharmacies and Federally Qualified Health Centers—to "minimize the impact on their operations and reduce the number of appointments that must be rescheduled."
"The vaccine is the weapon that will win the war against COVID, and we will continue to work with our federal partners to expedite the delayed shipments and will keep New Yorkers updated over the coming days," Cuomo said.
During his Friday briefing, Cuomo said "no appointments have been impacted thus far."
Officials at the briefing noted that many of the vaccination sites are still using week 1 to 9 allocations, so they haven't been impacted by the lack of week 10 allocations.
On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said vaccine shipments the city has been waiting on may not arrive until Sunday because of the winter weather.
The city had hoped to get the vaccines Friday after it held off scheduling more than 30,000 vaccine appointments because of a supply shortage caused by the winter weather.
"So, unfortunately, more delays because of the storm, because the deliveries are not arriving," de Blasio said at his briefing. "In fact, a vast majority of the resupply we expected for this week has not shipped from the factories yet."
De Blasio said the delay would mean that a new vaccination site in Queens, at Martin Van Buren High School, would not open on Friday as planned. Instead, it would open Sunday "at the earliest," he said.
The mayor said a second site at the Empire Outlets on Staten Island would still open Friday as scheduled.
