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“Transportation partners are working to deliver vaccines where possible, depending on local conditions, but adverse weather conditions are expected to continue to affect shipments out of FedEx’s facilities in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as UPS facilities in Louisville, Kenya, which serve as vaccine shipping hubs for several states, ”CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in a statement.
“DCC and federal partners are working closely with jurisdictions, as well as with manufacturing and shipping partners, to assess weather conditions and help mitigate potential delivery delays and cancellations,” she said. declared.
White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday urged vaccination sites to extend their hours of operation to compensate for weather delays.
“Time has an impact,” Zients said. “This has an impact on the distribution and the deliveries of the delivery companies and distribution companies. People work as hard as they can, given the importance of getting vaccines to states and suppliers, but there is a impact on deliveries. ”
Weather-related delays could last two weeks
Delays in delivering the Covid-19 vaccine due to weather conditions could continue “for next week to two weeks,” Lori Tremmel Freeman, executive director of the National Association of Human Health Officials, told CNN on Wednesday. counties and cities.
“The two biggest shippers involved here – UPS and FedEx – have major hubs or warehouses in the south, in Memphis and other areas. We therefore expect that there will be a problem in the delivery of vaccines due to weather conditions. related specifically, ”Freeman said.
Freeman said the weather concerns were briefly discussed in a phone call between local health officials and the Biden administration on Tuesday.
FedEx and UPS emergency plans
In a statement Wednesday, FedEx said it has “contingency plans in place to help reduce the effect of inclement weather on operations and service, and we are implementing those plans as much as possible.”
The company said weather conditions had impacted much of its U.S. network, including pickups and deliveries in some cities.
“We have in place contingency planning related to the movement of vaccines, which have priority status within our network, and we are working directly with our customers to help ensure their safe transport and delivery,” said the press release.
UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara said in a statement that pickups and deliveries would be made “as soon as conditions safely permit.”
“The UPS air network is functioning normally and our ground operations are functioning normally in areas where road conditions permit,” the statement said.
“We have extensive storm contingency plans that help us keep goods flowing when roads are impassable or airports are closed due to extreme weather conditions.
The UPS meteorology team works with its healthcare command center and response teams to forecast weather events and re-route shipments to keep vaccines “on track and on time.” indicates the press release.
NYC to ‘run out’ of doses, mayor says
New York City had fewer than 30,000 first doses on hand as of Wednesday due to weather-related shipping delays, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“This means that we are going to run out – today, tomorrow – we are going to run out,” de Blasio said of vaccine stocks.
“On top of that we have the weather problem, all over the country there are huge storms now causing shipping delays.
Vaccine shipments expected on Tuesday and Wednesday have been delayed, he said. 30,000 to 35,000 appointments, or even more, may not be scheduled accordingly.
“We’re going to have to hold on to the appointments that New Yorkers need,” de Blasio said.
The city administered 1,395,956 doses, more than the total population of Dallas, Texas.
Florida sees 200,000 vaccine doses delayed
Florida Department of Health spokesperson Jason Mahon said Florida officials blamed winter conditions across the country for the delay in shipping 200,000 doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.
The shipment was due to arrive on Tuesday, Mahon said.
The state notified vaccine suppliers of the delay and asked them to postpone appointments instead of canceling them, Mahon said.
Florida expects to receive the full vaccine allocation next week, according to Mahon.
More than 43,000 appointments affected in Indiana as 80 clinics closed
The closure of 80 clinics in Indiana due to inclement weather impacted more than 43,000 vaccine appointments, Indiana chief medical officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver said Wednesday.
Weaver said this week the state has also experienced delays in vaccine shipments due to weather conditions. The state has not received its Moderna vaccines for this week and appointments will have to be rescheduled, according to Weaver.
Indiana will retain vaccine eligibility at age 65 and older until deliveries return on time. Next, the state plans to open up eligibility to those aged 60 to 65, Weaver said.
“We’ll see how the weather continues to impact our expeditions, but we hope to be able to expand as early as next week,” Weaver said.
President Biden: ‘The vaccine will be widely available by the end of July’
“What’s going to happen is that it’s going to continue to increase as we move forward. We will have reached 400 million doses by the end of May and 600 million by the end of July,” he said. Biden told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Milwaukee.
Biden predicted that life could almost return to normal by Christmas.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Sara Weisfeld and Rosa Flores contributed to this report.
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