New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday that vaccination appointments to take place in the city on Monday will be postponed due to an impending winter storm expected to dump up to 40 inches of snow on the region.
At a press conference on Sunday, Mr. De Blasio said he didn’t want older New Yorkers on their way to vaccination appointments, warning of incoming blizzard-like conditions with gusts of wind. Winter storm warnings were in effect on Sunday for much of the eastern United States, hitting major metropolitan areas from Washington to Boston.
Vaccine appointments at several locations – the Javits Center in Manhattan, the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, a drive-through site at Jones Beach on Long Island, SUNY Stony Brook and the Westchester County Center – were to be rescheduled for this week, according to a statement. from Melissa DeRosa, a top assistant to Governor Andrew Cuomo. “We ask all New Yorkers to monitor the weather and stay off the road tomorrow so that our crews and first responders can safely do their jobs,” she said.
Personal learning in New York City schools is also closed on Mondays.
The storm will temporarily derail a vaccination rollout in New York City plagued by inadequate supply, error-free application systems, and confusion over the state’s strict admission guidelines. In New York, the vaccine is available to residents aged 65 and over, as well as a wide variety of workers classified as ‘essential’.
About 800,000 doses have been administered in the city so far, Mr de Blasio said.
The rollout of the vaccine was also plagued by wide racial inequalities, with black and Latino residents receiving far fewer doses than white residents, Mr de Blasio said.
The city’s demographics have been incomplete, but the numbers so far have been striking: Of the nearly 300,000 city dwellers who received one dose and whose race was recorded, about 48 percent were White, 15 percent Latino, 15 percent Asian, and 11 percent Black. Latino and Black residents were underrepresented: the city’s population is about 29 percent Latino and 24 percent Black.
An effort to bring more vaccination kits to disadvantaged communities in Brooklyn and the Bronx, including at churches and social housing sites, was also delayed this week due to the storm, as six pop-up locations in the two boroughs were moved to Wednesday. Mrs. de Rosa said.