NYC ready to store 1.5 million doses of COVID vaccine, announces creation of pandemic response institute
New York City will have the capacity to store at least 1.5 million doses of the much-anticipated COVID vaccines and expects to begin receiving the two approved vaccines before the end of the year.
“We are calibrating our entire public health infrastructure to this project,” city Health Department Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said Thursday. “But the process of turning a vaccine into a vaccination will be a challenge, a formidable one.”
There are now two COVID vaccines for initial use: One, which was developed by Pfizer, is expected to become available in the Big Apple on Dec. 15. That vaccine requires ultracold storage at a temperature of -112 degrees Fahrenheit. Chokshi projects the city has the capacity to store 320,000 doses of it at any given time. The other vaccine, by Moderna, can be stored in regular freezers, giving the city the ability to store much more of it.
The city plans to administer both vaccines to all New Yorkers who sign up for them. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents and staff will receive priority, but the specific details of how exactly that will work have yet to be fully hammered out.
Chokshi said the Health Department will use a registry to track whether certain neighborhoods are lagging in vaccine distribution so it can ensure doses are being distributed equitably.
People will be able to register to receive it through making appointments, and eligibility to receive the vaccine, at that time, will be assessed online, Chokshi said.
“After affirming on the day of their appointment that they are symptom-free, they can show up and receive a vaccination,” he said.
How the vaccine will be distributed is a concern, especially among Black New Yorkers, who experienced a higher rate of COVID infection than other groups. To address that, a group of Black leaders announced Thursday they’re forming a task force to ensure equitable distribution.
“We plan to make this a national model for the country,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, one of those leaders. “We want to identify, with specificity, those NYCHA community rooms, churches, mosques, and other places our people go, so we don’t have to drive in a car we don’t have and go to a Walgreens that we don’t visit in the first place to get a vaccine.”
Mayor de Blasio said Thursday he shares similar concerns, which he believes are rooted in a historical distrust when it comes to the government distribution of vaccines.
“We have to act on it and we have to change it,” he said. “They deserve to get priority in terms of vaccine distribution. Folks in public housing deserve priority. These statements say something about making sure that there is fairness.”
Details about how vaccines will be distributed came as the city hit a COVID positivity rate of 5.19%, averaged out over 7 days, exceeding the 5% threshold it’s deemed as cause for concern. But reaching that threshold does not immediately trigger restrictions, which are determined by the state government and which rely on a separate set of thresholds.
As they prepare to distribute the vaccines, city officials also announced they plan to invest $20 million in a new Pandemic Response Institute with an eye to preparing the city and the rest of the country for future health emergencies.
De Blasio predicted it will be a “global leader in public health training, research and management” — and will also spur job growth.
The institute is expected to begin operating in 2021 and will be housed in the Alexandria Center, which now hosts the city’s Pandemic Response Lab.
“This is going to be crucial to our future. It’s going to be crucial to our ability to protect people,” de Blasio said. “It’s so important to the recovery of New York City to bringing back and building an even stronger base of jobs.”
