Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has announced that New York is expanding its deployment of community vaccination kits to further strengthen fairness and equity in the vaccine distribution process. Last week, New York successfully piloted the deployment kits to five NYCHA senior housing developments and eight churches and cultural centers where nearly 4,200 seniors and eligible New Yorkers received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Kits are now being redeployed to additional NYCHA sites and churches to further build on that progress. In total, this initiative is expected to provide first doses of the vaccine to an additional 3,000 seniors and eligible New Yorkers. As with the pop-up sites established last weekend, these sites will be re-established in three weeks to administer second doses.
Following these deployments and as the federal vaccine supply increases, New York will continue to be deploy these kits until pop-up sites have been established at all 33 NYCHA Senior Housing Developments which house more than 7,600 seniors. Pop-up locations will also be established at other public housing complexes statewide, as well as at more than 300 churches and cultural centers which have volunteered to house these sites through Governor Cuomo’s Vaccine Equity Task Force.
“COVID has created a different dynamic in this country — I call it low tide in America,” Governor Cuomo said. “If you go to the amazing Shirley Chisholm Park and look at the bay during high tide, it looks beautiful, but if you go at low tide, you can see all the ugliness on the bottom. That’s what we’ve seen over this past year during America’s low tide – the racism, the discrimination, the inequality – and COVID has only exacerbated that problem. The undeniable fact is that COVID has killed the Black and Latino communities at a higher rate than the white community. There is no getting around that and its why New York has made ensuring fairness and equity in the vaccine distribution such a priority. I understand there is a level of skepticism about the vaccine given how it was managed by the previous administration, but that’s why New York did its own review. It’s safe, it’s effective, and it’s the weapon that will win the war, but we will only be successful if everyone is on board.”
The establishment of these four NYCHA sites was made possible through a partnership with SOMOS Community Care which runs the scheduling process and provides health care workers to administer the vaccine to eligible New Yorkers with appointments. The new sites are as follows:
Bronx
Randall Avenue-Balcom Avenue Housing
2705 Schley Avenue
Bronx, NY 10465
Union Avenue-East 163 Street Housing
950 Union Avenue
Bronx, NY 10459
Brooklyn
William Reid Apartments
720 East New York Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11203
Vandalia Avenue Housing
17 Vandalia Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11239
Several church-based sites are also opening this weekend at the following locations:
Bronx
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
777 East 222nd St. Bronx, NY 10467
Hours: Tuesday, January 26th 9am-5pm
Medical Partnership: SOMOS Community Care
Brooklyn
Bethany Baptist Church
460 Marcus Garvey Blvd Brooklyn NY 11216
Hours: Tuesday, January 26th 9am-5pm
Medical Partnership: SOMOS Community Care
Nassau
Memorial Presbyterian
189 Babylon Turnpike #1
Roosevelt, NY 11552″
Hours: Tuesday, January 26th 2-6pm
Medical Partnership: Northwell Hospital
Suffolk
St. Hugh of Lincoln Church
21 E 9th Street
Huntington Station, NY 11746″
Hours: Tuesday, January 26th 2-6pm
Medical Partnership: Northwell Hospital
Appointments at church-based sites are scheduled independently by each individual church.
This expanded deployment of Community Vaccination Kits furthers Governor Cuomo’s goal of ensuring the fair and equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. In late 2020, the Governor announced the launch of New York’s Vaccine Equity Task Force chaired by Secretary of State Rossana Rosado, Attorney General Letitia James, National Urban League President & CEO Marc Morial, and Healthfirst President & CEO Pat Wang. Since its establishment, the Task Force has continued work to ensure vulnerable and underserved communities are not left behind by breaking down the barriers to vaccination and ensuring there is equitable distribution of the vaccine across the state.
To facilitate this effort, New York has continued to build kits and work with public housing officials, churches, and community centers to support these efforts and deploy kits to the appropriate locations. Each kit includes step-by-step instructions for how to set up a site, and critical supplies and equipment such as:
- Office Supplies
- Workstation Equipment
- Communications Equipment
- Cleaning Supplies
- Lighting Equipment
- PPE
- Crowd/Traffic Control Equipment
- Vials
- Syringes
- Room Dividers
- Privacy Curtains
