New York City health officials have distributed small amounts of the swine flu vaccine to some major New York companies, including Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, even as shortages continue.

Citigroup has received 1,200 doses, more than half of what it requested, health officials said, and in late October, Goldman received 200 of the 5,400 doses it asked for. By contrast, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center received 200 of the 27,400 doses that it requested for its patients, workers and volunteers, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Jessica Scaperotti, a health department spokeswoman, said the priority was to get the vaccine to pediatricians, obstetricians, gynecologists, community health centers and public and private hospitals. Private companies that have asked for the vaccine are also eligible to receive it, as long as it is distributed to people who are considered at risk. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said they had administered the vaccine to pregnant women and employees with serious health conditions. News reports on Thursday that the two banks and other companies received doses of the vaccine led Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a former New York City health commissioner, to send out a letter reminding officials nationwide to make sure the vaccine goes only to people in high priority groups. Any decisions “that appear to direct the vaccine to people outside the identified priority groups have the potential to undermine the credibility of the program,” he said.

Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Centers for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said the focus on the banks was a distraction. “They’re not going to be giving it to the top bankers,” he said. “There’s no reason a high-risk person should get it at a public clinic instead of at work.”