What to Know
- New York City’s next monkeypox vaccine allocation will be 25,693 doses, as the city continues to grapple with an increase in cases.
- New appointments will go online for these new doses, however, a date has yet to be announced by the city.
- New York City's health commissioner says the city is battling dueling pandemics after a low vaccine supply and slow testing apparatus haven't been able to contain one of the largest-ever outbreaks of monkeypox.
New York City says its next monkeypox vaccine allocation will include nearly 26,000 doses, allowing it to make more appointments available. There's just one problem: It's not clear when the shipment will arrive -- and when it does, the state says there still may not be enough vials to accommodate everyone who is eligible to receive a shot.
The city doesn't make appointments available, though, until it has the doses in hand. It's not clear when the shipment will arrive, and the city's Department of Health only said that new appointments "will go online soon," without providing a date.
“We appreciate the additional vaccines from the federal government and continue to push for more doses to be allocated to NYC, which is the current epicenter of the monkeypox outbreak in the U.S.,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan in a press release. “The Department has the capacity to get these doses to New Yorkers quickly and we look forward to announcing our distribution plans in the days ahead.”
This most recent allocation adds to the 21,500 doses already given to New York City. The city’s new allocation includes 23,963 doses directly from the federal government and 2,000 from New York state.
More resources are incoming but slowly as New York City battles what its health commissioner has called dueling pandemics, low vaccine supplies and slow testing systems as it battles its largest-ever monkeypox outbreak.
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The latest effort to maximize vaccine distribution comes as cases are doubling in New York City virtually every five days. The city represents more than a quarter of all U.S. infections, according to CDC data, and more than 2% of all current infections worldwide.
MONKEYPOX IN NYC
New Yorkers can sign up for text notifications to receive alerts about monkeypox in NYC, including appointment releases, by texting MONKEYPOX to 692692 or MONKEYPOXESP for alerts in Spanish.
Officials are scrambling to contain monkeypox in New York City, which finds itself the epicenter of another major public health crisis as the latest batch of reported cases keeps the Big Apple out ahead of all other state counts.
The city's department of health reported 618 positive cases on Monday, an increase of 34% since its Friday report, just one day after three mass vaccination sites opened for one day in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
Elected leaders and health officials across the city have decried the lack of vaccine supply (the city reportedly gets 10% of the country's supply but accounts for at least a quarter of all cases) and inequity in its distribution. A single clinic opened in Chelsea during the first rounds of vaccine slots before more followed in Harlem, Queens and Staten Island.
“We are beginning to see a repeat of almost every challenge we faced in the early days of COVID — lack of testing capacity, lack of vaccine, lack of treatment. We learned these lessons the hard way during the last pandemic and should have been ready for this,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
Levine published a seven-point "action plan" on Monday he hopes will turnaround the early hiccups, which have included significant technological errors in obtaining vaccine appointments. Here are Levine's seven steps:
- Give NYC its fair share of the vaccine
- Create a pre-registration appointment portal
- Increase access to testing
- Increase access to treatment
- Re-open the city's sexual health clinics
- Better educate clinicians and healthcare providers
- Focus on equity
Suffolk County Executive said that the county will be getting another 1,800 vaccines from the state, and will be administering the vaccines both on the mainland and on Fire Island over the next two weeks.
On Thursday and Friday, about 525 vaccines will be available in the Cherry Grove neighborhood of Fire Island, with appointments available through the county's website. Appoints will also be made available on July 25 for another 400 vaccines that will be administered next week on Fire Island, and the county will offer 250 vaccines at the Northwell Health Community Center in the Westfield Mall.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that eligibility to get a monkeypox vaccine is being expanded, beyond just those who had a known exposure. The state said that, in accordance with CDC guidelines, the vaccine will also be available to individuals who identify as gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men, and/or transgender, gender non-conforming, or non-binary and who have a history of multiple or anonymous sex partners within the past 14 days.
"New Jersey has been given a very limited number of doses at this time, and the Department continues to press the CDC on timely delivery of additional necessary doses to meet the needs of our at-risk populations,” said Health Commissioner Persichilli. “At the same time, residents should be aware of the signs and symptoms of the orthopoxvirus and take precautions to prevent the spread.”
