Photo: Unsplash @cdc
March 2, 2021 By Allie Griffin
The COVID-19 vaccination site at York College in Jamaica is now open to all eligible Queens residents.
The site — where appointments were reserved for eligible residents of select Queens ZIP codes for one week — was opened to the rest of the borough on Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced.
“Appointments are OPEN at York College for all eligible New Yorkers who live in #Queens,” Cuomo tweeted Saturday.
He had previously limited appointments at the site to residents of about 20 Southeast Queens ZIP codes that had low COVID-19 vaccination rates in an effort to fight disparity in vaccine distribution.
Queens residents can check their eligibility for the vaccine and make appointments for the York College facility online here. The site has the capacity to vaccinate 3,000 people a day.
The York College site is part of a federal-state partnership. Its vaccine supply comes from a special allocation from the federal government — separate from the state or city’s weekly allotted dosages.
The announcement that all Queens residents that meet eligibility requirement can go to the site comes at around the same time that federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency usage.
City officials said they expect New York City to receive its first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine in coming days.
“We expect to get the initial part of our Johnson & Johnson supply later this week,” NYC Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said Tuesday. “It could be as soon as Wednesday or Thursday.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot and does not need to be stored at sub-zero temperatures, while both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do and require two shots to be fully effective.
The city plans to utilize a portion of its Johnson & Johnson supply to vaccinate homebound seniors due to its comparatively low-maintenance requirements.
“We’re going to devote a lot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the homebound senior initiative,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. “We’ll be able to start that out this month.”
As of today, the city has administered more than two million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
