FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 28, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Queens leaders call for more vaccine, local testing sites
BY BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED AND
GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Borough President Donovan Richards,
elected offi cials and community leaders
in Richmond Hill gathered outside of
the Leff erts Boulevard A train station at
Liberty Avenue on Th ursday, 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. Th at 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 offi cials representing
the districts called out inequities of service
in communities of color, including
Richmond Hill. Th ey’re also demanding
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew
Cuomo to open local vaccination and
testing sites for residents’ convenience.
“We had to fi ght to get tests in March,
April and May. We had to fi ght to get testing
sites,” Adams said. “Today, we are still
fi ghting. 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 community-based
organizations, faith-based organizations.”
According to Ulrich, residents cannot
travel to the Javits Center, which would
take two hours on public transportation.
During Th ursday’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 offi cials 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 Th anksgiving. 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
diffi culty 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 offi ce has helped
people to register for vaccinations.
“We have to fi nd 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 fi x it,”
Bratton said.
Richards said they are coming up with a
plan to help seniors and that it was important
that community-based organizations
had a part in it as well.
Bayside Saint Patrick’s Day Parade canceled once again
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Organizers of the Bayside Saint Patrick’s
Day Parade announced on Monday, Jan.
25, that the annual event has been canceled
for the second year in a row.
In a letter posted on the parade’s offi -
cial Facebook page, the organizers said
that the event scheduled for March 27,
2021, would not be moving forward
“due to the continuing COVID-19 virus
situation.” Back in 2020, the parade
committee canceled what would have
been the third annual event amongst
growing coronavirus concerns in the
city.
“As organizers of the parade, we feel
morally obliged to avoid any chance of
endangering our families, friends, guests
and the community at large by continuing
with plans for this year’s parade. We
look forward, instead, to marching again
on March 26, 2022,” said the organizers
in the letter.
Th e parade committee said that this
year’s Grand Marshall Eileen Flannelly
Mackell would maintain her role during
the 2022 parade as would aides Tommy
Mulvihill, Joe Donovan, John Golden,
Tom Golden and Father Chris Henue.
Additionally, the March 2022 parade
would continue to honor the memory of
Phil Brady, an aide to the grand marshal
in 2019.
“Let us also keep in mind and look
to support all the local businesses that
helped keep our parade going,” the committee
said. “And please remember and
pray for all our fi rst responders and essential
workers, many of whom serve on our
committee, and to those in our community
who lost their lives to COVID-19, may
they stay in our hearts forever.”
Th e fi rst-ever parade hit the streets of
Bayside in 2018 to celebrate the neighborhood’s
Irish community and traditions.
Photo courtesy of the Bayside Saint Patrick’s Day Parade
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Queens elected offi cials and community leaders address the COVID-19 testing and vaccine disparity in Queens at a press conference on Jan. 21, 2021.
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