White House Tells Governors It’ll Boost Vaccine Allocation Another 5%

(Bloomberg) -- The federal government plans to increase vaccine allocations by another 5% for the next three weeks, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The additional 5%, announced on a White House call with governors Tuesday, follows an initial 20% increase and then a subsequent 5%. Cuomo, during a call afterward with reporters, said he doesn’t expect a major supply boost until Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine is produced.

“The supply will only really increase when and if Johnson and Johnson is approved,” Cuomo said. “Johnson and Johnson would be a major and significant increase in production.” There will be more information on that over the next two weeks, he said.

The Biden administration also told governors they are adamantly opposed to using second doses as first doses, he said. Officials also said they would directly allocate vaccines to some federally qualified community health centers, Cuomo said.

The state will be reallocating doses from the federal long-term health-care program aimed at vaccinating nursing-home patients and workers, because it was over-allocated, he said.

“Those are excess, unused doses,” he said. “Those are doses they don’t need for that program.”

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