The large-scale state vaccination sites in Brooklyn and Queens are now open to all residents of those boroughs who meet the medical, occupational or age requirements, with thousands of appointments slots daily.
The sites at Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights will serve Brooklyn residents and York College in Jamaica will serve Queens residents. Each has the capacity to administer out 3,000 doses a day.
Last week, the two sites were vaccinating residents from specific ZIP codes but are now open borough-wide.
New Yorkers have praised the efficiency and friendly staffing at the sites:
Appointments are required and can be made online or by calling the state's COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829).
The Brooklyn and Queens sites also offer the ability to make appointments in person, if internet access is an issue. At Medgar Evers College Wednesday, staff with the volunteer group AmeriCorps directed people to two lines—one for those with appointments and one for those without to go inside to sign up for a slot.
The state’s seven-day average positivity rate was 3.18% Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced, calling it the lowest since November 26th, 2020.
There were 85 deaths from COVID-19 in the state Friday, including ten people in the Bronx, 15 people in Brooklyn, 8 people in Manhattan, 18 people in Queens, and three people on Staten Island.
There were 5,445 patients hospitalized in the state, a decrease of 181 patients since Thursday and the lowest number since December 12th, 2020, Cuomo said.
Of those patients, 1,121 people were in intensive care units, a decrease of 11 patients since Thursday. Of the ICU patients, 753 people were intubated, a decrease of 18 patients since Thursday.
"New Yorkers have shown strength and resilience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we're going to need more of it as we work to get everyone vaccinated across the state," Cuomo said in a release Saturday. "The footrace between the positivity rate and the vaccination rate is progressing in our favor and we've been able to reopen different sectors of our economy, but we still need more vaccines to propel us over the finish line. We have continuously opened more vaccination sites as our supply allows, and we're ready to get shots in arms as quickly and fairly as possible as our allocations increase. We can get to the light at the end of the tunnel, but we're going to need to stay safe and vigilant and care for our fellow New Yorkers."
The Food and Drug Administration is poised to approve a potential single-shot vaccine made by Johnson and Johnson, which was unanimously recommended by a key advisory panel Friday.
So far, Pfizer and Moderna have produced the two-dose vaccines used in the United States under an emergency use authorization from the FDA. The Washington Post reported scientists from Johnson & Johnson told the FDA panel that their “single-shot vaccine was 66 percent effective in protecting against cases of moderate to severe illness in a large, global trial, and 85 percent effective against severe cases.”
