New York City reported less than 1,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine in its possession on Saturday, according to data on the city’s website, amid a shortage of delivery due to severe winter weather that affected parts of the United States.
Avery Cohen, spokesman for the mayor of New York Bill de Blasio
Bill de BlasioNYC reported less than 1,000 doses of vaccine amid winter transportation, the delay of New York’s largest union approved Maya Wiley in the mayoral race. (D) wrote on Twitter that the lack of sufficient doses brought the city’s vaccination efforts to a “deadlock”.
Delayed shipments stopped our entire vaccination effort.
This morning, New York City has less than 1,000 first doses left on hand. pic.twitter.com/frXPryVwKS
– Avery Cohen (@CohenAvery) February 20, 2021
The New York City government website reports that to date, 1,471,948 doses of vaccine have been administered, including 873,223 first doses and 453,816 secondary doses.
The states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and others have experienced a winter storm and sub-freezing temperatures that have made roads unsafe, caused power outages and destroyed pipelines, leaving Americans with drinking water.
The White House said Friday it estimated the extreme weather created a backlog of six million doses of coronavirus, as two major vaccine dispatch locations in Memphis, Tennessee and Louisville, Ky., Slowed.
Andy Slavitt, senior White House coronavirus response counselor, said the weather has caused delays affecting all 50 states at several points along the supply chain.
As of Friday, more than 2,000 vaccination sites were in areas without electricity and could not accept doses, The New York Times reported.
As warmer temperatures rose in Texas and other states over the weekend, The Associated Press reported that about 70 people died this week in states affected by severe winter weather.
Many deaths were due to hypothermia caused by freezing temperatures, as well as other related events, including car accidents, carbon monoxide poisoning and house fires.
And while the power of millions of Texans was restored on Friday, more than 40,000 people in Texas lost their energy on Saturday night, according to poweroutage.us.
Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-La.) Announced Thursday that about 1 million people do not have access to safe drinking water, adding that there have been several boiling recommendations issued by the state.
Earlier in the week, Oklahoma was also subjected to deliberate power outages to save energy, according to KOCO News. As of Saturday night, the state seemed uninterrupted, according to poweroutage.us.
– Celine Castronuovo contributed to this report