De Blasio: NYC Will Run Out of Vaccines Next Week

The Jacob Javits Convention Center Covid-19 vaccination site in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. New York plans to open pop-up sites statewide that could be used to test customers and workers in a push to reopen offices, restaurants and theaters, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday in his State of the State speech.

(Bloomberg) -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will run out of vaccines by next week due to supply shortages.

“I’m telling you at this rate, there will not be any doses available in New York by next week,” de Blasio said in an interview with WNYC. “If we don’t get a serious supply, we’re going to have to freeze the appointment system. That would be insane after all the progress we’ve made.”

Hospitals across the city have canceled or stopped scheduling appointments for people to get the Covid-19 vaccine. New York state’s website says appointments remain available at sites including the Javits Center, but error messages pop up when trying to schedule a vaccine.

On Thursday, NYU Langone Health alerted its physicians that it hadn’t yet been allocated Covid-19 vaccine doses for next week and can’t continue its vaccination program without them, according to an email reviewed by Bloomberg News and confirmed by the hospital. The major hospital system has given about 30,000 shots to date but said it hadn’t gotten commitments from New York state or New York City for new supplies next week.

Mount Sinai Medical Hospital said Thursday it was forced to cancel existing public vaccination appointments from Friday through Tuesday “due to sudden changes in vaccine supply, according to a statement to NBC.

The city has only administered 42% of the 800,500 doses that it has in its arsenal, according to city data.

When checking the city’s public hospital system, a notice says there are no open vaccine appointments available at this time.

Despite that, the system continues to schedule appointments two weeks out, and hasn’t canceled any appointments, said Christopher Miller, spokesman for city Health & Hospitals. “We’re scheduling appointments and have some available scattered throughout the city,” Miller said. “As of now we’re okay with supply. Tomorrow may be different.”

It was a similar situation at Northwell Health, where websites to make appointments at vaccine locations displayed error messages or zero appointments. A spokesman said the hospital system hasn’t canceled any appointments because it only books them based on the amount of product in hand.

“As more supply comes in, the more appointments will open to book,” said spokesman Joe Kemp. “We are managing best we can with a very limited supply.”