NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Vaccinations clinics planned for next week have been canceled due to a supply shortage, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center announced Friday afternoon.
The hospital says supply has not kept pace with demand, so clinics that were scheduled to start Monday and end next Friday will not happen.
"As soon as we receive new vaccine shipments we will reschedule the clinics," the hospital said in a statement. "Rest assured we are diligently working to get more vaccine doses delivered to our community. Thank you in advance for your patience and your cooperation."
Niagara Falls Memorial on Thursday said it was experiencing a temporary glitch in its online registration for getting a COVID-19 vaccine. The issue caused some dates and times to be booked beyond capacity and ultimately forced the cancellation of the vaccine clinic that was scheduled for Friday.
"We really apologize for really how inconvenient this may be for many, many people that registered for those clinics. But again, unfortunately we don't have any vaccine that we could use to administer," according to Joseph Ruffolo, the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center president and CEO.
Ruffolo told 2 On Your Side on Friday that the hospital only gets about 24 hours notice when a shipment of vaccines is set to arrive.
"The resolve is the pipeline that is going from the federal government to state really has to grow exponentially for us to continue to meet the demand, particularly within the two priority groups in Phase 1a and Phase 1b" Ruffolo said.
