The Biden administration and New York State will be coming together to open two mass vaccination sites in New York City in an effort to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to minority communities impacted the hardest by the pandemic.
The two vaccination sites will be two CUNY colleges, York College in Jamaica, Queens and Medgar Evers College in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Both colleges will administer approximately 3,000 doses daily. These will be the largest in New York state, The New York Daily News reported.
“These are going to be very large sites. They’re complicated operations, but they’re going to address a dramatic need in bringing the vaccine to the people who need the vaccine most,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Feb. 10 during a press conference.
Both York College and Medgar Evers College are set to open their doors on the week of Feb. 24.
At York, the site will be located in the college’s Health and Physical Education Building. York College President Berenecea Johnson Eanes expressed her gratitude with the decision upon choosing the college to be one of the next mass vaccination sites.
“We at York College are happy for the opportunity to serve our borough, city and state in the Herculean task of vaccinating New Yorkers,” Eanes said in a blog post. “I want to thank Governor Cuomo for recognizing York as an important resource, not just as an outstanding institution of higher learning, but also as an important community resource for social justice. We are ready to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.”
This news comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that Citi Field would open on Feb. 10 to vaccinate eligible residents in Queens. The mass vaccination site is open for 24 hours and staff members will be operating from Wednesday through Saturday.
Apart from Queens residents, Taxi and Limousine Commission drivers and food service workers also qualify to receive the vaccination, according to CBS New York.
Prior to the Citi Field opening, Cuomo and de Blasio announced on Feb. 3 that Yankee Stadium was selected as the newest mass vaccination site for eligible residents in the Bronx, which opened on Feb. 5.
The stadium was chosen in an effort to address the borough’s concerning COVID-19 positivity rate and to close the social inequality gap between those who have received the vaccine and those who haven’t, according to the governor’s website.
“It’s abundantly clear that Black, Latino and poor communities have been hit the hardest by COVID, and the Bronx is no exception,” Cuomo said in an announcement. “Our efforts to target vaccinations by locations with higher positivity rates have been working to not only keep the infection rate down, but to help ensure equity in our vaccine distribution process and opening a mass vaccination site at Yankee Stadium — the Bronx’s most iconic landmark — is the perfect solution to helping this borough get vaccinated and defeat COVID once and for all.”
