Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Thursday that a new "super-charged" effort will make it easier to get vaccine appointments and get shots into the arms of New Yorkers.
In the next six weeks, community health centers across the state that opt for the program will have access to vaccines from the feds.
The program will supplement the doses already given by the city and the state to help address the massive demand.
Funding for the program comes from the December federal relief bill. All community center sites are eligible to become vaccination sites as long as they sign up for the program and are approved by New York Health Center hubs.
This means up to 210 are eligible. The federal government predicts that at least 100 will participate.
The locations of the selected community health centers are meant to improve vaccine accessibility in underserved and minority communities where access has been a challenge.
The ODA Rehabilitation Service Center in Williamsburg is one of the locations the federal government says is eligible to become a vaccine site.
"That means more vaccines for New York and many more New York sites to administer them," says Schumer. "I've been working with the president and with the mayor on the issue of vaccines because we all want more, and now there's light at the end of the COVID tunnel."
The effort also focuses on access to free vaccines.