Coronavirus live news: New York pleads for more Covid vaccine as global daily deaths pass 17,000 for first time

New York Mayor warns city will fall short of its inoculation goals unless it gets more vaccine; Portugal announces lockdown; UK passes 100,000 deaths

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said the city would fall short of its inoculation goals unless it could get more vaccine, Reuters reports.

The mayor said short supplies were hampering New York City’s efforts to increase its immunisation campaign. His appeal comes as the country as a whole struggles to meet an overall goal, with vaccinations now running far behind a target of 20 million people by now.

“We need the federal government, the state government and the manufacturers to step up and get us more supply immediately,* de Blasio said at a briefing.

The country’s most populous city is adding vaccination sites across its five boroughs, including its two Major League Baseball parks, and has succeeded in loosening restrictions on who is eligible for vaccination, de Blasio said.

Both New York and California have opened inoculations to healthy people as young as 65.

New York is on track to inoculate 1 million of its more than 8 million residents by the end of the month, but only if it gets enough vaccine, he said.

“I confirmed with our healthcare team yesterday that even with normal supplies that we expect to have delivered next week, we will run out of vaccine at some point next week, unless we get a major new resupply,” he added.

At the Javits Center in Manhattan which was pressed into service as a temporary hospital in April, health officials said they were prepared to vaccinate 10,000 people in 12 hours, with the ability to ramp up to 25,000 in a 24-hour period.

*We consider this a wartime mobilization, and that lives are on the line every minute of every day,” state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker told reporters.

Hello and welcome to our rolling live coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic.

My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.

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