Yankee Stadium, city churches and community centers have been designated as COVID-19 vaccine distribution sites

Yankee Stadium will open Friday as a COVID-19 vaccine hub strictly for Bronx residents as per Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

News 12 Staff

Feb 5, 2021, 12:28 PM

Updated 1,401 days ago

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Yankee Stadium will open Friday as a COVID-19 vaccine hub strictly for Bronx residents as per Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
At least 15,000 appointments are expected to be available at the stadium during the first week.
Local and state officials are pushing for the hub and other pop-up sites in an effort to target locations and people of color with higher positivity rates.
Cuomo's office says the Bronx has the highest COVID-19 infection numbers of all five boroughs and that COVID-19 has killed Black and Latino New Yorkers at a higher rate.
The new site is also meant to close the vaccine inequality gap that local officials say has developed citywide.
For those who want to take advantage of this site, here's what you need to know: Starting Friday, the stadium will be operating from 8 a.m. through 8 p.m., seven days a week. You need to make sure you meet the city's 1a and 1b vaccine eligibility requirements. Anyone from grocery store workers to city workers can make appointments at somosvaccinations.com or can call 1-833-SOMOSNY.
If you can't get an appointment at the stadium, Cuomo also announced 35 new community-based pop-up vaccination sites that are also opening this week. Six of those are in the Bronx.
These stations will be operating at churches, community centers, NYCHA buildings and cultural centers.
Mt. Carmel Baptist Church on Prospect Avenue in Morrisania is one of such sites where they will be operating until Monday from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. A handful of people patiently waited in line to receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine outside the church Thursday.
"Yesterday, my daughter and my son called me that they're opening new to go to try it, so we tried and we fortunately, we got it both today," said 67-year-old Maria Acosta.
For Acosta and her 69-year-old husband, it was an emotional relief after desperately trying to schedule an appointment for a month.
"I feel like I can breathe and just be able to leave my home relaxed. I just feel excited. It's very emotional," Acosta said in Spanish while tearing up.
Church pastor Anthony Lowe said he hopes people take advantage of receiving the vaccine at the church.
"It's imperative, it's the only way, it might take a while, that we as a community, as a people, will get some sense of normalcy again," Lowe said.
Another temporary site that opened on Thursday in the Bronx was the Greater Eternal Baptist Church on Elton Avenue.
In Brooklyn, Christian Cultural Center in Flatlands Avenue, United Revival Mennonite Church on Melrose Avenue, and Howard Houses on Pitkin Avenue all opened today as well.
Several others around the city will open over the weekend.
Twenty-five thousand people are estimated to take the vaccine this week.