WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 28, 2021 31
Queens leaders demand more COVID-19 vaccine, testing
sites be brought to South Ozone Park and Richmond Hill
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED AND
GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Borough President Donovan
Richards, elected officials
and community leaders in
Richmond Hill gathered outside of
the Lefferts Boulevard A train station
at Liberty Avenue on Thursday,
Jan. 21, to raise awareness about the
prevalence of COVID-19, as well as
testing and vaccine disparities.
Richmond Hill and South Ozone
Park are two of Queens’ neighborhoods
that have been hit hardest
by COVID-19, where residents are
experiencing food insecurity and
job losses amid rising cases of the
virus, yet again.
While New York City’s overall
positivity rate is 8.53 percent, according
to the city’s Department
of Health, the positivity rate in ZIP
code 11419 is 16.2 percent.
“Put that in perspective, Richmond
Hill/South Ozone Park’s positivity
rate is almost twice that of the rest
of Queens,” Richards said. “We also
have to take personal responsibility
as well. That means everybody
needs to adhere to the rules and
regulations we have spoken about
time and time again — wearing your
facial mask when you’re out, not
congregating in places, in hookah
bars and restaurants. We cannot
have that.”
Richards was joined by Council
members Adrienne Adams, Eric Ulrich,
as well as Assembly members
Jenifer Rajkumar, Khaleel Anderson,
and David Weprin to distribute personal
protective equipment (PPE)
to residents and remind them to
observe social distancing.
Although a new state vaccination
site had opened at the Aqueduct Race
Track, located at 110-00 Rockaway
Blvd., on Jan. 11, Richards urged
that more needs to be done for the
people of Queens, especially those
in Richmond Hill and South Ozone
Park.
Richards said they’re opening a
mobile testing site on Jan. 25 at St.
Teresa of Avila, located at 109-55
128th St. in South Ozone Park.
“We are already seeing disparities
in who is taking the vaccine,” Richards
said. “We already see the same
disparities in what we saw in testing.
You should not have to leave your
community to get tested. We need to
make sure that testing is happening
and centered in every corner and
pocket of this community.”
Local elected officials representing
the districts called out inequities
of service in communities of color,
including Richmond Hill. They’re
also demanding Mayor Bill de Blasio
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards addresses the COVID-19 testing and vaccine disparity in Queens
at a press conference on Jan. 21, 2021. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to open local
vaccination and testing sites for
residents’ convenience.
“We had to fight to get tests in
March, April and May. We had to
fight to get testing sites,” Adams
said. “Today, we are still fighting.
We are still seeing people dying in
this community because of COVID-
19, and there is a vaccine.”
When de Blasio and Cuomo announced
a plan to open the Jacob
Javits Center, located at 11th Avenue
between 34th Street and 38th Street
in Manhattan, Adams said they’re
about to make the same mistakes
as they did during the spike of the
virus.
Ulrich, Adams’s City Council colleague,
referenced the high number
of hospitalizations and deaths that
occurred in Richmond Hill and
Ozone Park during the height of the
pandemic.
Ulrich criticized the mayor and
governor for playing the blame
game, saying politics should be put
aside amid the crisis.
“We have to work together, and
we can not play politics with public
health or public safety,” Ulrich
said. “Put the politics aside, get
us the testing capabilities, get the
vaccine distributed to communitybased
organizations, faith-based
organizations.”
According to Ulrich, residents
cannot travel to the Javits Center,
which would take two hours on
public transportation.
During Thursday’s press conference,
Anderson had recalled a
57-year-old constituent from South
Ozone Park who called him on
Monday, almost in tears, concerned
about the vaccination and how she
would get it.
“I couldn’t tell her where to go because
there aren’t any vaccination
sites in South Ozone Park or Richmond
Hill,” Anderson said. “Why do
our communities always have to demand,
demand and demand instead
of getting what we deserve?”
Rajkumar said it’s her top priority
to make sure her constituents get
their fair share of the vaccine.
“We are here to say collectively as
your elected officials and as your
community leaders, we will not be
left behind. Richmond Hill matters.
Your health and your safety and your
welfare matters,” Rajkumar said.
“We didn’t get a community testing
site until Thanksgiving. We’re
not going to wait that long to get the
vaccine in this neighborhood,” said
Community District Leader Richard
David.
Community leaders also called out
the difficulty of the lack of vaccine
registration process, especially for
seniors and those who don’t have
access to the internet.
Community Board 10 Chair
Betty Bratton said that her office
has helped people to register for
vaccinations.
“We have to find a way to improve
the system that they use for people
to register for the vaccine — 75, 85
and even 90-year-old people should
not have to try to navigate a website
or hanging on the phone for hours.
We have to fix it,” Bratton said.
Richards said they are coming up
with a plan to help seniors and that
it was important that communitybased
organizations had a part in it
as well.
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