Vaccination centers in New York City were left empty last weekend, as one local health official said: ‘We blew our chance to vaccinate thousands.’
Pictures show both the Lincoln High School on Coney Island and George Westinghouse Vocational High School in Brooklyn were ghost towns last Saturday.
One Department of Health worker at Hillcrest High School in Queens told The New York Post: ‘You cannot imagine how much nothing it was. We could have used that day to vaccinate thousands of people and we just blew it.’
Data shows just over 22,000 doses were administered this Saturday in NYC; on Friday that figure was more than 36,000. Vaccine trackers shows 18,866 vaccinations were given January 30 – compared to 39,964 the previous day.
A Department of Health spokesperson told DailyMail.com: ‘Our capacity to distribute is much greater than our supply of vaccine. The limited supply we had was exhausted over the weekend. DOHMH sites were open that day to accommodate a limited number of rescheduled appointments from the prior week.
‘Every dose was used over the course of the weekend.’
The daily number of people getting vaccinated now well surpasses the numbers infected, CNN reports. A total of 102,420 people tested positive for the virus on Friday; the US is averaging more than 1.3 million vaccinations a day.
More than 26 millions have been infected with the virus; 462,272 have died.
The Centers for Disease Control announced on Saturday that 8,317,180 Americans have now received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, amounting to 2.5 percent of the population.
At least one dose of a vaccine has been administered to 30,250,964 million people, which equals to 9.1 percent of the population.
Pictures show the Lincoln High School. pictured, and the George Westinghouse Vocational High School in Brooklyn were ghost towns last Saturday
The vaccine trackers shows half the amount of vaccinations were given on January 30 – 18,866 – compared to the previous day – 39,964 But the daily number of people getting vaccinated now surpasses the numbers infected, CNN reports
City Councilman Mark Treyger had tweeted video from the center at Lincoln High School on Coney Island, writing: ‘Mostly staff and almost no one getting vaccinated. Irony is the city’s website says no appointments are available for my constituents today, but no one is there & they’re sitting on vaccine supply. This is unacceptable @nycHealthy!’
City Councilman Mark Treyger had tweeted video from the center at Lincoln High School on Coney Island last weekend, writing: ‘Mostly staff and almost no one getting vaccinated.
‘Irony is the city’s website says no appointments are available for my constituents today, but no one is there & they’re sitting on vaccine supply. This is unacceptable @nycHealthy!’
Councilman Brad Lander shared his own footage from a hub that same day, writing: ‘Heard from a constituent that the same happened today at George Westinghouse HS in downtown Bklyn: Lots of staff eager to help vaccinate but no appointments & no one coming in.
‘@NYChealthy what’s going on? We cant sit on supply, we need as many shots in arms as possible ASAP.’
Yankee Stadium finally opened as a COVID-19 mass vaccination site Friday but many of the coveted spots for appointments remain unclaimed by Bronx residents.
At a press conference on Friday with Gov. Cuomo, Yankees President Randy Levine said they’d be giving out ‘trinkets and gifts for people, to help incentivize people’.
The Bronx has by far the worst COVID positivity rates of anywhere in New York City but it has the lowest interest in the vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control announced on Saturday that 8,317,180 Americans have now received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, amounting to 2.5 percent of the population. At least one dose of a vaccine has been administered to 30,250,964 million people, which equals to 9.1 percent of the population
Data shows just over 22,000 doses were administered Saturday; on Friday that figure was more than 36,000. The vaccine trackers shows half the amount of vaccinations were given on January 30 – 18,866 – compared to the previous day – 39,964
Following Treyger’s tweet walk ins were at that center. He said: ‘It seemed as if they were planning on just letting the day go by with no one getting vaccinated whatsoever with vaccine doses in a refrigerator, which is unacceptable.’
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the city’s 15 vaccination hubs were open last weekend ‘to accommodate a limited number of rescheduled appointments from the prior week’.
Officials say all doses were used by the end of the weekend. They added: ‘Doses were in short supply and there were appointments the following day as well.’
The staffer working at Hillcrest High School on January 30 said he was one of 70 working; just 10 people were given the jab, he said.
Despite that, the unidentified worker said requests to allow those without appointments were denied.
People line up in the rain outside the Yankee Stadium on Friday
The hubs had already been forced to close from January 21 to 24 because of supply issues. Last week’s snowstorm also meant closures on Monday and Tuesday.
Lawmakers have slammed the city for its ‘poor outreach,’ particularly among the Bronx’s high number of black and Latino residents, many of whom are wary and reluctant to get the shot.
New York City Councilman Mark Levine, who represents District 7 in New York City (northern Manhattan) shared a screen grab of the many unfilled appointment slots on Twitter.
‘There are still…vaccine appts available at Yankee stadium next week. They are not disappearing fast,’ he wrote on Thursday.
‘This is good news – but also bad news. It means NYC is not doing enough outreach to people on the ground. The City should have teams out all over the [Bronx] signing people up.’
Levine lamented that not enough canvassing teams had been dispatched in the borough to signs up residents.
‘Everyone please help spread the word. We don’t want one [appointment] slot to go unused!’ he tweeted.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had distributed 59,304,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States and that 39,037,964 doses had been administered as of Saturday morning.
The tallies are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, the agency said.
According to its tally posted on Friday, the agency had administered 36,819,212 doses of the vaccines and distributed 58,380,300 doses.
The agency said 30,250,964 people had received 1 or more doses, while 8,317,180 people had gotten the second dose as of Saturday.
A total of 4,628,962 doses of vaccine have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
