New York State and state officials opened a large-scale Covid-19 vaccination center at Yankee Stadium on Friday, which aims to get more photos in the arms of residents of some of the city’s most affected neighborhoods.
The Bronx site has the capacity to handle 15,000 vaccination meetings in its first week of operation, according to officials operating the facility. On Friday morning, only 2,000 meetings were still available for the first week, officials said. The facility will only receive reservations from Bronx residents and shootings will be by appointment only, according to officials.
Hundreds of residents lined up in front of the stadium on Friday. Some did not make a reservation, but said they hoped they would be added to a waiting list or receive an appointment at a later date.
Josefina Rodriguez, 85, went with her daughter to the vaccination meeting at the stadium.
They live together in the same Pelham Parkway apartment. Ms. Rodriguez had to cancel her original appointment when her daughter, Rosa Estela, and her son-in-law tested positive for the virus.
Vaccination lines were formed outside Yankee Stadium on Friday morning.
Photo:
Sarah Blesener for the Wall Street Journal
When Ms. Estela saw the news about the new vaccination site, she said she immediately registered her mother. Mrs. Estela then announced the staff of her local school about the site. “I think most signed up over the weekend,” she said.
Both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said they hoped the site would increase the number of vaccinated black and Latino New Yorkers.
Mr. de Blasio, a Red Sox fan, declared himself a Yankees fan just one day on Friday to celebrate the site’s opening.
“It’s about fairness,” he said. “It’s about protecting the people who have the most protection, because the Bronx is one of the places that has borne the brunt of this coronavirus crisis.”
City data released on Sunday showed that nearly half of the city’s hundreds of thousands of residents who received the blow were white, more than double any minority group in the city. While city officials said the data was incomplete, preliminary findings showed that blacks received 11% of the dose, while 15% went to Asians and another 15% to Latinos.
President Biden has announced plans to increase the supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines sent to states for the next three weeks and the purchase of additional doses to vaccinate the majority of the US population by the end of the summer. Photo: Doug Mills / Getty Images (originally published January 26, 2021)
Mr Cuomo and de Blasio sought to improve vaccination rates by setting up facilities in partnership with churches, healthcare providers and civil rights groups in minority communities.
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“When all the people in the Bronx said, I jumped in line.”
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They both said some black residents were reluctant to shoot because of distrust of healthcare and government institutions in the history of unethical experiments. “There are good faith reasons for distrust of the system. I understand. But this is not true with this vaccine, “Mr Cuomo told a news conference in Albany on Friday.
The city has also increased access to communities where there has been greater caution about the vaccine, Mr de Blasio and officials said.
“It can be door-to-door, but it can also be small community groups, to be able to convince people that they want to be vaccinated and also to help people with access problems solve those problems,” said Mitchell Katz, president of the city’s public hospital system, said at a news conference on Thursday.
A sailor registered people for vaccinations outside Yankee Stadium on Friday.
Photo:
Angus Mordant / Bloomberg News
State data showed that the Bronx positivity rate for Covid-19 was 5.5% as of February 2nd. The Bronx has the highest mortality rate of any neighborhood in the city.
Those waiting for their meeting on Friday at Yankee Stadium on Friday said they were grateful for a site dedicated only to Bronx residents.
“When they said all the people in the Bronx had just jumped on the bandwagon,” said Greg Alvarez, a 50-year-old health worker who lives on Sedgwick Avenue with a meeting Thursday night. “I have to protect myself and my family.”
Write to Katie Honan to [email protected]
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