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After a slow beginning to its vaccination program, New York has turned things around and distributors have now administered 93 percent of the first doses - and 91 percent of all doses - allocated to the state by the federal government.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has administered 96,000 vaccines in the past 24 hours, though it faces a dwindling supply as the government only supplies the state with between 250,000 and 300,000 doses each week.
New York has received a total of 1,053,650 allocations of the first dose, with 975,958 being administered. A total of 136,500 second doses have been distributed, with 108,573 of those being administered by health officials.
“We are racing to administer the vaccine as quickly as possible while doing everything we can to reduce the infection rate,” Cuomo said.
"The State administered 96,000 shots in the last 24 hours, and we have the operational capacity to do even more - but we need more doses from the federal government because the real problem continues to be that the demand outpaces supply.”
On Long Island, the region has received a total of 144,750 COVID-19 vaccine doses, 140,502 of which have been administered. The 97 percent distribution rate is among the top in the state, behind only the Southern Tier (100 percent), North Country (99 percent), and Central New York (98 percent).
Cuomo made note that the federal government has increased eligibility for the vaccine to include 7 million New Yorkers, the federal supply of vaccines has actually decreased, leading to some appointments being canceled or postponed.
“We've made progress on both fronts since the post-holiday surge but there's a long way to go before we reach the light at the end of the tunnel," Cuomo said. “We also need providers to continue prioritizing the groups they are responsible for serving in order for the system to remain fair.”
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