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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that a new pop-up site will be set up at the Open Door Family Medical Center at the Village of Ossining Ambulance Corps. and Neighbors Link on Main Street in Ossining between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 6, though most appointments have already been filled due to the limited allotment.
It is among a dozen new community-based pop-up vaccination sites coming online this week at churches, community centers, public housing complexes, and cultural centers in downstate New York to “bolster the state’s commitment to ensuring fairness and equity in the vaccine distribution process.”
The sites are expected to vaccinate more than 4,000 people this week, with more sites expected to open up in the coming weeks. Since the community-based pop-up sites starting going online last month more than 50,000 New Yorkers have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the sites will be re-established in three weeks to administer the second doses to those who receive the first this week.
"Reaching underserved communities across the state is critical to a vaccination strategy that serves all New Yorkers, and community-based pop-up sites bring the vaccine directly to those who have been hardest hit by the virus," Cuomo said. "As we continue to expand access, we're also partnering with community leaders to address vaccine skepticism which remains a large problem in underserved communities.
"Fairness and equity in the vaccine distribution process remain our top priorities and we will not rest until COVID is defeated once and for all."
The pop-up sites receive a limited amount of the vaccine, which is earmarked for certain members of the community, officials noted.
"Community-based vaccination sites are a key component of New York's effort to ensure all eligible New Yorkers have a chance to get the vaccine quickly and fairly, right in their community," Cuomo added. "Social equity and fairness have been at the center of our response, but this isn't purely an access issue.
Vaccination sites are planned for all 33 NYCHA Senior Housing Developments, and at more than 300 churches and cultural centers that volunteered to house the sites.
“COVID brought the ugly truth of inequity and inequality in this country to a tipping point," Cuomo said. "COVID has killed Black and Latino New Yorkers at a higher rate and that is why these community-based sites are one of New York's vaccine priorities.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is bright and getting brighter with each new location and each shot administered."
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