NYC reports fewer than 1,000 vaccine doses amid winter weather shipment delays

New York City reported less than 1,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in its possession Saturday, according to data from the city’s website, amid delivery shortages due to the severe winter weather that has battered parts of the U.S.

Avery Cohen, a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), tweeted that the lack of sufficient doses has brought the city’s vaccination efforts to a “standstill.” 

Delayed shipments have put our entire vaccination effort at a standstill.

As of this morning, New York City has fewer than 1,000 first doses remaining 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 vaccine doses have been administered, including 873,223 first doses and 453,816 second doses. 

The states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and others have experienced a winter storm and sub-freezing temperatures that have rendered roads unsafe, caused power outages and damaged pipes, leaving Americans with undrinkable water. 

The White House said Friday that it estimated the extreme weather has created a backlog of six million coronavirus doses, as two major vaccine shipping locations in Memphis, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky., experienced an operational slowdown.

Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for the coronavirus response, said the weather had caused delays affecting all 50 states at multiple points along the supply chain.

As of Friday, more than 2,000 vaccination sites were in areas without power and were not able to accept doses, The New York Times reported.

While warmer temperatures rose in Texas and other states over the weekend, The Associated Press reported that approximately 70 people had died this week in states affected by the severe winter weather.

Many deaths were due to hypothermia from the freezing temperatures, as well as other related events, including car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning and house fires. 

And while millions of Texans’ power on Friday was restored, more than 40,000 people in Texas remained without power Saturday evening, according to poweroutage.us.

Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-La.) on Thursday announced that about 1 million people did not have access to safe drinking water, adding that there were multiple boiling advisories released by the state. 

In the beginning of the week, Oklahoma had also been subject to intentional rolling power outages to conserve energy, according to KOCO News. As of Saturday night, the state appeared to have no outages, according to poweroutage.us.

— Celine Castronuovo contributed to this report