The first dose of Covid-19 vaccines will arrive in New York City as early as December 15, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.
The city will receive a first shipment or shipment of vaccines of about half a million doses, the mayor explained.
Of these, 254,250 will be from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which will arrive on the 15th, and 211,275 from Moderna, which will arrive on December 22.
The priority in vaccines, detailed de Blasio, will be health workers who are at high risk, as well as residents and workers of nursing homes for the elderly.
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The vaccines will later go to the 27 neighborhoods hit hardest by Covid, as well as NYCHA public housing complexes.
“Obviously it will take months,” to have vaccines for all New Yorkers, the mayor acknowledged. After receiving the first doses, the city will receive weekly shipments of the vaccine, de Blasio said.
Both vaccines, but especially Pfizer’s, need high refrigeration for maintenance. The city, explained the mayor, with the help of hospitals is prepared to store up to 1.5 million doses in refrigeration.
To monitor the vaccination system and ensure that those vaccinated receive the two doses that are necessary, the city will use the immunization registry that it already has and that is used for the flu vaccine and the like, de Blasio explained.
The city will also establish temporary vaccination centers, including some within schools.
These centers will serve initially to vaccinate essential workers but eventually for the entire public, which may have access by appointment. These same centers were used in 2009 for H1N1 vaccines and where tens of thousands of New Yorkers were vaccinated.
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