Pharmacies around the city struggled to meet the demand for flu vaccinations on Sunday, a day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared a public health state of emergency in response to a drastic increase in the number of flu cases this year.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
People lining up for influenza vaccines at a New York drugstore.
In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Harlem and places in between, pharmacists were turning away people looking for the last line of defense against a virus that appears to be stronger than ever.
“Just to let you know, I can only take one more on the line,” said Carlos Collazo, a pharmacy intern who was called in to work at a Rite Aid in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on his day off. Those who missed the cut, like Tamika Louissaint and her sister, Doris, had to look elsewhere in the neighborhood or put off the injection at least another day, while drugstores waited for more shipments.
“I was a little bit nervous because of the warning,” Doris Louissaint said, referring to Mr. Cuomo’s declaration. “I’ll go someplace else with her.” The sisters walked away.
The city Health Department said it could not provide data on the availability of vaccines. There were shortages in some areas but they were not pervasive, a spokesman for the department said. Yet an informal telephone survey of a dozen drugstores in neighborhoods across the city found that all but three had run out of the vaccine. Most that had exhausted their supplies said they expected to replenish them by Monday.
The governor’s emergency declaration on Saturday temporarily suspended a state law that prohibits pharmacists from vaccinating children.
There have been nearly 20,000 cases of influenza reported across the state so far this season, according to state health officials. That is four times the number of positive laboratory tests reported last season.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that the flu had reached epidemic levels nationwide, and local health officials said that was true for New York City as well.
At Mr. Collazo’s store, on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Fifth Street, more than 30 people had signed up for shots by early Sunday afternoon and nearly 60 had signed up on each of the two days before that. The number of vaccinations on a normal day is five.
People who get vaccinated every year joined newcomers prompted, or frightened, into action by the recent warnings.
“It has been insane,” Mr. Collazo said, adding that most people whom he turned away were polite and understanding.
Lucas Watkins missed his usual vaccination in the fall but decided to get the shot when his girlfriend’s boss came down with the flu. When he was turned away from the Rite Aid in Park Slope, his second failed attempt that day, he simply pivoted and left for another drugstore down the way, joining many others on the same parade.
Pharmacies Pressed to Meet High Demand for Flu Vaccine
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Pharmacies Pressed to Meet High Demand for Flu Vaccine
