On Friday morning, Spike Lee paid a surprise visit to Yankee Stadium on the opening day: New York City’s new COVID-19 vaccination mega-site.
The director of “Do the Right Thing,” who was there for a film shoot, not for a shot, looked simple with a gray Yankees bomber jacket, khaki, and baseball cap as he chatted with people who tail to get his first punch.
The Mecca of the Bronx Firefighters first opened Friday as vaccination megacells after weeks of delays due to a shortage of vaccines.
The municipality has recorded one of the highest coronavirus positivity rates. Only Bronx residents will be able to get vaccinated there.
Several hundred people soon lined up to get the first shot of the two-dose vaccine.
Officials said they had already administered blows to a couple of hundred people before mid-morning at the stadium, where appointments are fully booked for at least the next five days.
On Thursday, there were still thousands of time slots open for appointments, City Councilman Mark Levine said when questioning whether the Big Apple has made enough outreach to generate interest in the shots.
Two lines extended from door 4, with one line for people by appointment and the other for those who did not have one.
“I’ve been trying for the last two months to make an appointment,” Ralph Davis, a 69-year-old semi-retired sanitation worker, told The Post at 8:15 a.m. who said he had known the place at ” Michael “. Home Show “.
“I just called and got the appointment instantly,” he added.
Two restaurant workers, Jennifer Andon, 27, and her father, 50-year-old Ruben, were also waiting on the line after registering on the Somos Vaccines website.
“My dad had an appointment at 8:10, he just has to be more organized, especially in temperatures like these,” Andon said.
“It’s winter, it’s not organized, but we are more than grateful to have the vaccine anyway. I received the notification through the Citizen app. I literally went right away, I saw the link, I made the appointment, ”he said.
“I helped my neighbors and aunts make an appointment too, because we’re all Bronx residents,” Andon added.
Godwin Vorgbedor, a 58-year-old health worker, was waiting on the line without an appointment.
“I found out about it on TV two days ago and I tried to register on the computer several times. He keeps rejecting me and I say, “I can’t go on, let me in and see,” he said after waiting 45 minutes.
“She is OK. They just tell us to space. I’m willing to pay the price, just to make sure I get it, “added Vorgbedor.
Dr. Ramon Tallaj, founder of SOMOS Community Care, a network of about 2,500 providers in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, said “almost all appointments” until next week.
“You see, it’s raining, people are watching. They are right here. They don’t want to go anywhere, they want to get the vaccine, ”Tallaj said.
A City Council spokeswoman said Thursday that an outreach effort was underway in the Bronx to publicize and facilitate enrollment.
The city has previously been attacked by a complicated online registration process for its own vaccination centers that confused seniors, and has admitted it needs to do more to encourage minority communities to shoot them.