NEW YORK — The city’s monkeypox vaccine clinic, which opened Thursday in Chelsea, will not make any additional appointments available after Monday’s appointments until it receives more vaccines, the Health Department said.
The rollout of the clinic was met Thursday with long lines and a lack of supply to meet demand for walk-in appointments.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Manhattan City Councilman Erik Bottcher and state Sen. Brad Hoylman sent Gov. Kathy Hochul a letter, dated last Friday, urging her to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get more doses of the monkeypox vaccines for New Yorkers.
Thirty-nine people in the city have tested positive for orthopoxvirus, according to the health department, which called those cases “likely monkeypox.” The state has the largest number of cases nationwide, according to CDC data.
The temporary clinic offered New Yorkers two-dose of the JYNNEOS vaccine at the Chelsea Sexual Health clinic at 303 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. The vaccine requires two doses, four weeks apart.
According to the department, anyone is at risk of the virus, but the city says most cases in the recent outbreak are among gay, bisexual or other men who have sexual relations with men, putting this group at a higher risk of exposure.
The city’s vaccine clinic expanded eligibility to gay, bisexual and other men, whether cisgender or transgender, who are age 18 and older who have had multiple partners in the last two weeks.