More than 300 doses of the coronavirus vaccine will be administered Saturday at a pop-up vaccination site in Mott Haven.
Sun River Health, a network of 43 health care centers, is distributing the Pfizer vaccine to residents. They were provided an allotment of vaccines from the state to distribute to those eligible.
Pop-up sites are providing some relief to the system as many have been struggling to find appointments elsewhere.
"Community health centers have such a great bond, connection and trust with the community -- so through our providers, our nurses, and our clinical team, we really feel that if we're able to have about an allotment of 250 a week, we'll be able to get those into arms," says Christopher Quinones, chief administrative officer of Sun River Health. "That's the kind of effort that we need to see within the communities that we're serving."
Residents like Ray Barreto says it has been hard trying to get vaccinated.
“It’s a prayer that was answered because we found out that they were available,” Barreto says. “We were just praying for an opportunity to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
New York says the addition of pop-up vaccination clinics have allowed for around 30,000 New Yorkers to receive their first vaccine dose.
The sites will be brought back for the second doses to be administered.
The city also announced a plan to give the shot to homebound seniors and their home health aides, with an on-site senior vaccination clinic beginning next week. Once the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson becomes available, they will work towards having medical personnel go to homes of homebound seniors. The goal is to vaccinate 25,000 health aides over the next month.