Mayor Announces Each Borough will Soon Have its Own 24/7 Mass Vaccination Site

By Yehudit Garmaise

     All New Yorkers soon will have access to mass vaccination sites in their own boroughs that are dedicated to them, Mayor Bill de Blasio explained this morning at his press conference. 

     For instance, today, was Opening Day at Citi Field: not for baseball, but for vaccinations, said the mayor, who visited Citi Field this morning, as his wife, Chirlane McCray, got her shot.

    “Everyone who came out to get vaccinated at Citi Field had great energy, wanted to talk about the good experience they had, and the excitement they felt about getting finally getting their shots,” said the mayor, who noted that the city has provided 1,071,393 vaccines already.

   “The Citi Field site,” the mayor said, “is for the people of Queens,” just as the Yankee Stadium mass vaccination site is dedicated to vaccinating the people of the Bronx.”

  York College also will serve as a 24/7 mass vaccination site that is dedicated to residents of Queens.

     While the city continues to create more vaccination sites, a greater supply of vaccines is also need for massive process of vaccinating New York City’s  8 ½ million residents can go full steam ahead. 

     “As of next week, the mayor said, “We will be able to do thousands of doses a week. Citi Field site will be run by our Health + Hospitals team, which can do 5,000 vaccinations a day, 35,000 vaccinations a week: 24/7, but we need the supply.”

     For the residents of Staten Island, a 24/7 mass vaccination site soon will be open at the Empire Outlets, a 350,000-square-foot retail complex.

     For Brooklyners, the mayor announced future 24/7 mass vaccination sites at both Medgar Evers College and at the Barclay Center.

      “Yesterday, I spoke to John Abbamondi, who is the CEO of BSE Global, [which is the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Center], who said, 'They are rarin’ to go,'” Mayor de Blasio explained.