NEW YORK: Scattered vaccine shortages cropped up on the frontlines of the U.S. battle against the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, prompting at least one large New York healthcare system to cancel a slew of appointments of people hoping to be inoculated.
The supply-chain blips arose as the country struggles to speed up the pace of vaccinations. Only 12.3 million doses have been administered, with only 10.6 million people having received at least one of the two required shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In New York, the country’s most populous city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city has vaccinated about 300,000 of its more than 8 million residents, but was on course to run dry next week because it was burning through vaccines faster than they were being replenished.
“We’ve been getting resupply right now at a very paltry level of about 100,000 doses a week,” de Blasio said on WNYC radio. “We went through 125,000 in the first four…