New York City's COVID-19 infection rate on a seven-day average went down to 4.81 percent, compared with 4.94 percent one day earlier, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on Wednesday.

"A vaccine is on the horizon. Don't give up now. We HAVE to work together to keep these numbers down," said the mayor.

There were 196 new hospitalizations and 2,738 new cases of the coronavirus in the city, he added.

With the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine expected to start arriving in New York City next week, the mayor vowed not to let people of privilege "jump the line" and get vaccinated ahead of priority groups like people in nursing homes, health care workers and first responders.

"Their time will come," he said during his press conference on Wednesday. "We've got to protect those who serve us and those who are most vulnerable, and we will enforce that rigorously."

As of Tuesday afternoon, coronavirus deaths added up to 24,416 and confirmed cases to 337,232 in NYC, according to The City, a project that tracks the spread of confirmed COVID-19 infections and fatalities in New York City, based on information provided by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the governor's office, The COVID Tracking Project and the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.