At his briefing today, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has arrived in New York City.
“This is really important for our fight against the coronavirus. This is the first vaccine to require only one dose to be effective– one and done. This is going to revolutionize our approach to getting people vaccinated,” said de Blasio. “We have a goal of 5 million New Yorkers fully vaccinated by June and this development is going to help us do it a lot better.”
According to New York City Health Commissioner Dr. David Chokshi, this vaccine is different from the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines because the supply is more limited. Throughout the first two weeks of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, about 71,000 total doses are expected to be administered. However, the number of vaccines available is expected to increase by the end of March.
“Even 71,000 moves us forward. It doesn’t get us where we need to be, which is a total of half a million or more doses per week that we can fully utilize at all different vaccines together,” said de Blasio.
The vaccine is immediately going to be administered to homebound seniors with the help of the New York Fire Department. FDNY is assisting in the logistics of identifying and reaching the homebound seniors. In order to vaccinate as many seniors as possible, the operation will be moving door-to-door, area by area. The vaccinations began today in Co-Op City in the Bronx, and will start tomorrow in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn.
“There’s the location in Co-Op City and there are also mobile units in which a nurse will arrive in locations where people cannot leave their homes and we’ll do the vaccinations in that manner,” said Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro. “As we move forward we’ll certainly advertise more and more how any of these homebound folks can get in touch with us and ensure that they get vaccinated as they should.”
The mayor said that since day one, over 2 million total vaccinations have been administered. This week, about 190,000 first doses of Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines are expected, as well as 30,000 of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines throughout the weekend.
“New York City is moving forward. We’ve got momentum. We’ve got momentum in our vaccination effort. We’re well over 2 million vaccinations and that’s gonna grow rapidly,” said de Blasio. “This is a city on the move. I guarantee you’re gonna see amazing things happen in 2021 and you’re gonna see a recovery for all of us.”
