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City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Will Run Out by Friday, de Blasio Warns

COVID-19 vaccination (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Jan. 19, 2021 By Allie Griffin

New York City’s supply of the COVID-19 vaccine will run out by Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.

The city’s supply of life-saving doses will begin to dry up on Thursday and health officials will be forced to cancel appointments that are scheduled for Friday and beyond, de Blasio said.

“At the rate we are going, we will begin to run out on Thursday, this Thursday — two days from now,” he said during a morning press briefing. “We will have literally nothing left to give as of Friday.”

The city currently has just 116,000 doses for the rest of the week, de Blasio said. Last week, health providers administered more than 220,000 vaccines.

The city won’t get a new shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine until next Tuesday, meaning the city will have to halt vaccinations from this Friday until next Wednesday.

“This is crazy. This is not the way it should be,” de Blasio said. “We have the ability to vaccinate a huge number of people, we need the vaccine to go with it.”

He called on the federal government to send more doses to New York.

President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office tomorrow, has promised to ramp up the vaccine distribution throughout the country. However, it’s uncertain if he’ll be able to restock the vaccine before the city’s supply runs out.