NEW YORK (Reuters) – Scattered shortages of COVID-19 vaccines continued Saturday under pressure from growing demand, as previously vaccinated Americans returned for the second sightings they needed and millions of newcomers get a first look.
The supply gaps, coming as the U.S. vaccine effort entered its second month, have forced some health care systems to suspend meetings for first-time vaccine seekers with only one health care system in place. in New York to eliminate the killing of some of those in it.
“As eligibility increases, you’re just increasing demand, but we can’t increase supply,” Northwell Health spokesman Joe Kemp told Reuters by phone.
Northwell, New York ‘s largest healthcare provider, will only offer prescriptions because it will receive more vaccines, and only after it has dispensed doses to people who are registered for their second sight, Kemp said.
Although supply flows have been tight, Northwell plans to offer meetings in the coming week, he said.
The two approved vaccines, one from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech and the other from Moderna Inc, require an increase three or four weeks after the initial design to get the best effect against the crown virus.
While health care workers and residents and nursing home workers received the first priority, eligibility for the vaccines has since expanded, with some states opening it up to healthy people aged 65 and over. seniors and people of any age with pre-existing conditions.
In addition to New York, signs of vaccine supply chains appeared in Vermont, Michigan, South Carolina, New Jersey and Oregon.
In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown said vaccinations for seniors and educators would be delayed, while Vermont Governor Phil Scott said the state would specifically target the population over 75 of them due to “incredible” federal provision.
“INCLUDING” DOES NOT
“Instead of promising a limited supply to a wide population who know we can’t vaccinate at the same time, we believe our strategy will get faster and more effective arm-to-arm strikes, with less loss of life, ”Scott said on Twitter.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week that the richer requirements would make 7 million of New York’s 19 million residents eligible for inoculations.
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York said on Friday it had suspended vaccination meetings on Tuesday due to “sudden changes in vaccine provision.”
An official at NYU Langone Health, another health care giant, said he has canceled new treatments non-stop because he received no confirmation that he would receive more vaccines.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that while the city was building up its vaccine capacity, supply was still coming in at a “very paltry dose” of 100,000 doses a week, which put on the course to run dry in the coming week.
De Blasio was among three dozen mayors who called on the incoming Biden administration last week to send direct shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to them, bypassing state governments .
Jack Sterne, a spokesman for the state, blamed the supply problems on the federal government, which he said was cutting New York vaccines in the coming week by 50,000 doses to 250,000.
“The whole problem is the lack of satisfaction from Washington, and now that we have expanded the population of the deserving people, the federal government is still failing the request,” Sterne said in a post -d.
Adding to the intergovernmental tensions was a square in which several regulators accused the Trump administration on Friday of falsely promising to release millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine from a stockpile that the U.S. health secretary has admitted from then it is not.
Since the first vaccine was given in the United States in mid – December, nearly 12.3 million doses have been given, out of 31.2 million doses dispensed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total includes 1.6 million people who received both doses, the CDC said.
Since the spread of the pandemic, 23.4 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, of which 392,153 have died, according to Reuters accounting.
While critically ill patients are straining health care systems in parts of the country, particularly in California, the national hospitalization rate has declined in the past two weeks and stood at 127,095 Friday.
A model widely cited by Washington University projects that January is the deadliest month of the pandemic, claiming more than 100,000 lives.
But the newly developed model of the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment project that will reduce the monthly fee thereafter, will drop to around 11,000 in April, as more people get the vaccine.
“By May 1, some states may be close to herd protection,” the IHME said.
Reciting with Peter Szekely; Edited by Dan Grebler