Feds To Send NY More Coronavirus Vaccines: What You Need To Know

NEW YORK — While there aren't enough doses of the coronavirus vaccine for everyone eligible, President Joe Biden made an announcement Tuesday that will ease a tiny bit of the enormous pressure.

Biden said the United States is ramping up deliveries to states over the next three weeks, The Associated Press reported.

There should be enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall, he said.

Biden, calling the push a “wartime effort,” said the administration was working to buy an additional 100 million doses of each of the two approved coronavirus vaccines. He acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been left guessing how many vaccine doses they will have from one week to the next.

Shortages have been so severe that some vaccination sites around the U.S. had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments for people seeking their first shot.

“This is unacceptable,” Biden said. “Lives are at stake.”

He promised a roughly 16 percent boost in deliveries to states over the next three weeks.

That's good news for New York, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"Now with advance notice we can plan better," Cuomo said in a statement after the president's announcement. "New York stands ready to administer more vaccinations the moment we receive more supply. However, even with this increased allocation, supply is likely to continue to be extremely limited in the near term."

The vaccine rollout is in its seventh week. In New York, 7 million health care workers, essential workers and people 65 and over were deemed eligible to be vaccinated. The state had been expecting 300,000 vaccine doses a week, but recently has been receiving fewer. A 16 percent increase would mean another 40,000 or so doses.

"Brutal truth is, it’s going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated. Months," Biden said. "And the next few months, masks, not vaccines, are the best defense against COVID-19."

Governors and top health officials have been increasingly raising the alarm about inadequate supplies and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates of how many vaccine doses are on the way so they can plan.

Biden’s team held its first coronavirus conference call with the nation’s governors Tuesday and pledged to provide states with firm vaccine allocations three weeks ahead of delivery.

Biden’s announcement came a day after he grew more bullish about exceeding his pledge to deliver 100 million inoculations in his first 100 days in office, suggesting that a rate of 1.5 million doses per day could soon be achieved.

The administration has also promised more openness and said it will hold news briefings three times a week, beginning Wednesday, about the outbreak that has killed over 420,000 Americans.

The setup inherited from the Trump administration has been marked by miscommunication and unexplained bottlenecks, with shortages reported in some places even as vaccine doses remain on the shelf.

As of Tuesday, New York's health care distribution sites have so far administered 93 percent of first dose vaccinations, health officials said. A total of 1,210,339 first doses out of an allocation of 1,304,050 have gone into people's arms so far.

According to the state's coronavirus vaccine tracker, the Hudson Valley region has already used 68 percent of the first and second doses allocated and Long Island has already used 75 percent.

Distribution sites include hospitals, county and city health departments, state sites and other providers registered with the vaccine program such as pharmacies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.