FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 7, 2021 • HEALTH • THE QUEENS COURIER 27
health
Mayor pledges to vaccinate 1M New Yorkers
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
Th e city plans to create vaccination
hubs in mid-January in order to double
vaccination sites in the city and inoculate
1 million New Yorkers against COVID-
19 next month, Mayor Bill de Blasio
announced last week.
Hubs will be set up in spaces like school
gymnasiums serving as points of vaccine
distribution with the goal of administered
45,000 doses of either FDA-approved vaccines
per week. Offi cials will place these
sites in the 27 neighborhoods hardest
hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic
which are predominantly communities
of color, said Health Commissioner Dr.
Dave Chokshi.
Chokshi added that the hubs will be
staff ed with nurses and pharmacists provided
by community-based organizations.
In addition, offi cials plan to increase
vaccination sites across the fi ve boroughs
by providing vaccines at all COVID-19
testing sites and community-based organizations
where appropriate.
At the moment, New York state is in
Phase 1 of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
vaccine distribution plan, meaning only
health care workers at high risk of contracting
the virus along with nursing
home residents and staff are being given
the fi rst dose of the vaccine.
Both Pfi zer-BioNTech and Moderna’s
COVID-19 vaccines require two shots
given to patients roughly three weeks
Photo via Flickr/Mayor’s de Blasio’s offi ce
COVID-19 vaccine hub to open in Jamaica
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
radomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Th ree vaccine hubs will open in New
York City on Sunday, Jan. 10, Mayor Bill
de Blasio announced Monday, Jan. 4.
One of the hubs will be located at
Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, according
to the mayor. Additional hubs will be
opened at Bushwick Education Campus
in Brooklyn and South Bronx Educational
Campus, de Blasio said.
“Th is is the shape of things to come,” the
mayor said on Jan. 4. “Th is is the model to
start getting us to the grassroots.”
Last week, de Blasio announced plans
to speed up vaccination eff orts in the city
by creating a network of vaccination hubs
this month with the goal of administering
1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine
over the upcoming weeks.
Hubs will be set up in places like school
gymnasiums with priority to be given to
the 27 neighborhoods hardest hit by the
coronavirus pandemic, the mayor said,
with the goal of administering 45,000
doses of either the Pfi zer-BioNTech or
Moderna vaccine a week.
apart. Once a person has received the second
of the two shots, they have a roughly
95 percent effi cacy rate against the virus.
Health offi cials said last week that
88,000 New York City residents have
already been vaccinated against COVID-
19 since shipments of Pfi zer-BioNTech
vaccine arrived in the fi ve boroughs on
Dec. 14.
“Th at’s good news, but we are nowhere
near we need to be,” said Mayor de Blasio.
“We need to go into overdrive.”
De Blasio said the city’s recently established
COVID-19 Command Center will
be in charge of deciding how many vaccines
will be shipped or administered at each
of the forthcoming hubs and which New
Yorkers will be allowed to receive them.
“Suffi ce it to say you will be hearing
more and more about that with each day
to come,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Parker Jewish Institute
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
