New York City has been forced to temporarily close 15 vaccination sites from Jan. 21-24 because the city isn't receiving enough vaccine doses from the federal government, CBS News reported.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was forced to cancel 23,000 vaccine appointments this week due to the lack of supply. Mr. de Blasio had warned Jan. 15 that the city would run out of vaccines this week unless the government gave it a larger supply.
Appointments at the 15 Department of Health vaccination sites that are temporarily closed will be automatically rescheduled exactly one week from the original time, CBS News reported. Public hospital sites and private clinics will be able to continue giving vaccines through Jan. 22.
"If you haven't received a message that your appointment has been canceled, assume it's still on," city council member Mark Levine told CBS News.
Dave Chokshi, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene commissioner, told CBS News the shortage occurred because of a shipment delay of Moderna's vaccines.
"The information that we have is that Moderna, the manufacturer, they partner with a distributor from the federal government, and it's the distributor that conveyed the delay. We had been expecting to get all of the doses of Moderna for New York City yesterday on Tuesday. And instead, they will be delivered over the course of today and tomorrow," he said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the Biden administration Jan. 20 to boost the state's supply of COVID-19 vaccines, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"What is clear now is that we will be going from week to week. You will basically see a constant pattern of running out, waiting for the next week's allocation, and then starting up again," Mr. Cuomo said.
President Joe Biden has promised to use the Defense Production Act to boost the country's vaccine supply, CBS News reported.
More than a dozen states have said they're beginning to run out of vaccines, Politico reported. Some states, including Colorado and Oregon, started scaling back eligibility.
State health officials across the U.S. told Politico they need better estimates from the federal government weeks in advance about vaccine shipments, rather than getting notice less than a week before shipments, as they have been.
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