New York has administered less than a third of the doses of the coronavirus vaccine it has so far – even with Blasio’s mayor boldly asserting on Thursday that he would have one million city residents inoculated in a month.
About 630,000 doses of vaccines were sent to the Empire State, but only 203,000 doses actually reached New Yorkers’ arms on Wednesday, state data show.
The figure, about 32 percent, is slightly higher than the national rate, with about 22.5 percent of the 12.4 million doses distributed to be administered as of Wednesday, according to the Control and Control Centers. Prevention of diseases.
In New York City, about 88,000 people received their first dose in the past three weeks, when the vaccine began to be administered to healthcare professionals and nursing home residents.
“We are very, very far behind where we need to be,” said Councilman Mark Levine, chairman of the New York City Health Committee.
Levine noted that the Big Apple alone has 500,000 health professionals in the high-risk category.
“We should vaccinate 400,000 people a week,” he told The Post, calling the inoculation effort “the biggest and biggest challenge of the pandemic.”
On Thursday, De Blasio promised that many more people would receive the injection next month.
“We are going to vaccinate 1 million New Yorkers in January,” de Blasio told CNN.
“More and more people want to get the vaccine and we are going to do it,” he said, calling the campaign a “call to arms”.
However, the city had received only 347,525 doses as of Thursday.
To achieve the goal declared by the mayor, the authorities will need to develop a well-coordinated planning and mobilization effort, said Ayman el-Mohandes, dean of the CUNY School of Public Health.
“It is doable, but it will require a lot of organization,” said el-Mohandes.
Vaccinating the city’s 500,000 health workers and other first respondents is “the easiest part,” added el-Mohandes – because they are captive audiences that you can apply to work.
But moving on to vaccinating the elderly and other private citizens will be more challenging.
“All stages depend on human behavior,” said el-Mohandes. “How are you going to reach these people?”
Even among health facilities, there appear to have been some obstacles in vaccinating employees.
Brahim Ardolic, CEO of Staten Island University Hospital, said on Thursday that of the 6,500 workers at the hospital, just under 2,000 were vaccinated.
“We would love to receive more doses” from the state, Ardolic said. “I have people who want to be vaccinated.”
“I would love to have 6,500 makes on my doorstep, but I’m not expecting it.”
New York state officials said they have received weekly vaccine shipments from the feds and hope to have enough for those who received the first dose, for the second after the three to four week period required between the two vaccines.
The authorities noted that about 221,000 of the 630,000 doses were sent to CVS and Walgreens by the feds for the federal asylum resident inoculation program – and argued that the state effort is moving much faster.
“New York has had one of the most successful vaccine launches compared to other states,” said Governor Cuomo’s senior adviser, Rich Azzopardi.
“The goal is to make sure that nothing stays on the shelf.”
Health officials in the Trump administration have discussed in recent weeks the goal of sending enough doses to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of 2020.
But as of Wednesday, only about 2.8 million first doses have been administered across the country, according to the CDC – although officials have said there is a delay in reporting in some states.
“We agree that that number is less than we expected,” Moncef Slaoui, one of the chiefs of Operation Warp Speed, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“We know it should be better and we are working hard to make it better.”
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy and Lia Eustachewich