New York City and state officials on Friday opened a large-scale Covid-19 vaccination center at Yankee Stadium, which aims to take more shots into the arms of residents in some of the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods.
The Bronx site has the capacity to handle 15,000 vaccination visits in its first week of operation, according to officials responsible for the facility. As of Friday morning, only 2,000 appointments were still available for the first week, officials said. The facility will accept reservations only from residents of the Bronx and photos will be taken only by appointment, according to officials.
Hundreds of residents lined up outside the stadium on Friday. Some had no reservation, but said that they would like to be placed on a waiting list or that they would be booked at a later date.
Josefina Rodriguez, 85, accompanied her daughter to the vaccination consultation 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.
Photograph:
Sarah Blesener for the Wall Street Journal
When Ms. Estela saw on the news about the new vaccine location, she said she immediately registered her mother. Ms. Estela then informed her local school officials about the website. “I think most of them signed up for the weekend,” she said.
Both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo said they expect the site to increase the number of black and Latino New Yorkers who receive the vaccines.
Mr. de Blasio, a Red Sox supporter, declared himself a Yankees supporter for just one day on Friday to celebrate the opening of the site.
“It is about justice,” he said. “It’s about protecting the people who need the most protection, because the Bronx is one of the places that has suffered the most from the coronavirus crisis.”
City data released on Sunday showed that almost half of the city’s hundreds of thousands of residents who were shot were white, more than double that of any minority group in the city. While city officials said the data was incomplete, preliminary findings showed that blacks received 11% of the doses, while 15% went to Asians and another 15% to Latinos.
President Biden announced plans to increase the supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines sent to the states over the next three weeks and buy enough additional doses to vaccinate the majority of the US population by the end of the summer. Photo: Doug Mills / Getty Images (originally published on January 26, 2021)
Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio tried to improve vaccination rates by creating facilities in partnership with churches, health professionals and civil rights groups in minority communities.
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‘When they talked about all the people in the Bronx, I just jumped on the line.’
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Both said that some black residents hesitated to take a chance because of mistrust in health and government institutions due to a history of unethical experimentation. “There are genuine reasons to be suspicious of the system. Understand. But it is not true with this vaccine, ”said Cuomo at a news conference in Albany on Friday.
The city has also increased its reach in communities where there was more caution around the vaccine, 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 who have access problems to solve those problems,” Mitchell Katz, the president of the health system. city public hospitals, said Thursday at a press conference.
A marine registered people for vaccination outside Yankee Stadium on Friday.
Photograph:
Angus Mordant / Bloomberg News
State data showed that the Bronx’s positivity rate for Covid-19 was 5.5% on February 2. The Bronx has the highest death rate of any other neighborhood in the city.
Those who waited for his appointment at Yankee Stadium on Friday said they were grateful for a venue dedicated only to residents of the Bronx.
“When they talked about all the people in the Bronx, I just jumped on the phone,” said Greg Alvarez, a 50-year-old health worker who lives on Sedgwick Avenue, who made an appointment Thursday night. “I need to protect myself and my family.”
Write to Katie Honan at [email protected]
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