Name: It may take ’12 months’ to get a coronavirus shot, Gov. Cuomo warns
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It may take ’12 months’ to get a coronavirus shot, Gov. Cuomo warns

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Posted: Jan 15, 2021 / 07:23 PM ESTUpdated: Jan 15, 2021 / 07:23 PM ESTThis is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.HARLEM, Manhattan — It may be months — possibly as long as 12 months — for all New Yorkers who want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to actually get their shots, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.He and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio both said, in separate forums on Friday, that demand for the vaccine is far outstripping supply, and that that could end up shutting vaccination sites, when they’re most badly needed.That’s the main problem, among many, connected to the vaccine’s rollout.About 7.1 million New York residents are currently eligible for the vaccine. That’s almost half of the state’s 15 million adults who will ultimately be cleared for a vaccination. Reaching all of them will take quite a long time, according to Gov. Cuomo.“We have to get through the vaccination period, to critical mass of the vaccine,” the governor said in his daily briefing, from Albany. “That’s six months, nine months, 12 months, depending on who you talk to.”In other words, it may be up to a year before all New Yorkers can actually get a coronavirus shot. The 7.1 million are eligible now because they meet federally recommended guidelines: they’re 65 or older, or they work in a job that qualifies them, such as healthcare, emergency response, or teaching.The governor said that it’s a lot of people needing the vaccine, when there’s not much to go around.“All this volume,” Cuomo said, “and it has to go through the point of a needle, literally, and figuratively.”That’s because the supply of doses is low, and decreasing. New York state had been receiving about 300,000 doses per week. Not anymore.“We actually got less this week,” said the governor. “We went from 300,000 to 250,000 dosages.”Among other problems are resources that are meant to connect people with vaccination appointments.The state’s vaccination hotline greets callers with a recorded message.“We’re sorry, due to high call volumes, we are temporarily unavailable to take your call.”It advises callers to instead check the state’s . However, it doesn’t connect people to vaccinations either, according to multiple people who’ve contacted PIX11 News.Gov. Cuomo confirmed that, as well.“The state website [used to connect] people with pharmacies, county health departments” and other vaccination sites “in their area,” the governor said. “What happened is they’re fully booked.”Also, there’s no guarantee that there will be vaccine available when people arrive for their appointments, due to some facilities exhausting their vaccine supply.It’s why Mt. Sinai and NYU Langone medical centers have either canceled or stopped making appointments. It’s also why the city’s Brooklyn Army Terminal vaccination site turned people away on Friday.Mayor Bill de Blasio, in his weekly radio appearance on WNYC radio, underscored how drastic the situation is.“We will run out of vaccine next week in New York City,” the mayor said, “if there’s not a very different approach from the federal government, and the state government, and the manufacturers.”The city’s Health + Hospitals Corporation runs multiple vaccination facilities. Some of them are only managing to administer a fraction of the dosages that they’re allotted. The Sydenham facility has only administered 19% of its vaccine allotment, as of Friday, according to the governor.Bay Street Health Center, and Total Care, Rx, Inc. have also administered less than 20 percent of their allotment, said Gov. Cuomo.He said that he was basing his assessments on information provided by the vaccination sites.“These numbers come to us from the facilities themselves,” said the governor.The federal government oversees distribution of vaccine dosages to states. Both the governor and mayor called on the incoming presidential administration to boost quantities of vaccines going out.Suggest a CorrectionYour browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or InternetExplorer 9 or later.Data from✕× Close Ad

Posted: Jan 15, 2021 / 07:23 PM ESTUpdated: Jan 15, 2021 / 07:23 PM ESTThis is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.HARLEM, Manhattan — It may be months — possibly as long as 12 months — for all New Yorkers who want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to actually get their shots, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.He and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio both said, in separate forums on Friday, that demand for the vaccine is far outstripping supply, and that that could...

It may take ’12 months’ to get a coronavirus shot, Gov. Cuomo warns

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