Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo returned to the scene Monday of one of the most pivotal moments in the epic battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, as he announced the opening in the coming weeks of 10 more mass vaccination sites in statewide, including three on Long Island.
Sites here will be on the Suffolk County Community College campus in Brentwood, on the Old Westbury campus in SUNY and on the SUNY Stony Brook campus in Southampton.
“Thanks to the increased supply of vaccines from our partners in Washington, we can take more advantage of our state’s ability to distribute doses and, once opened, these new sites will allow us to continue receiving large-scale shots,” dir Cuomo. in a statement.
The state already operates mass vaccination sites on Jones Beach and the Stony Brook University campus in Stony Brook.
New York City will also get an additional vaccination site at a location that has not yet been announced in the Bronx, Cuomo said. The state has not yet set specific dates for the commissioning of these vaccination sites.
The impending increase in vaccination options, announced on a day when U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated people can gather indoors without masks, was well received by the U.S. Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said 23.5% of county residents have gotten at least one COVID-19 hit so far.
Two of the three approved vaccine formulations require two shots to be effective.
“The new CDC guidelines released today confirm that vaccinating ourselves is the best tool we have to get back to a normal rate,” Curran said in a statement. “My message to Nassau residents is simple: when you have the right and the opportunity, I urge you to make your shot.”
The governor made the announcement at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, reviewing a site that became a massive emergency hospital last year, when New York was turning around from an epidemic that had gripped the city and state and brought much of society to a bewildering halt.
Cuomo, defending perhaps the worst crisis of his political career amid allegations of sexual harassment and covering up the number of deaths from COVID-19 in residences, focused on Monday on how the massive convention hall turned the place of vaccination in a “sea.” of army cradles to care for deadly virus victims as hospitals overflowed in the spring of 2020.
He described the fear he saw in the face of the National Guards and army personnel who attended the center in the early days, when scientists knew little about the virus.
The conversion of the center into a massive emergency hospital was something that “no convention center on the planet has ever done,” Cuomo said.
He recalled talking to the National Guards.
“They’re in this place that looked like it was a scene from a science fiction movie. It looked like it was after the apocalypse,” he said. “And the National Guard got scared. It looked in his eyes.
“But they showed up. And that’s what I found so powerful. In this scary scene (jeeps, army trucks, body bags) they showed up … They had the courage to show up.”
“A painful year”
Cuomo promoted the state’s progress from the height of the pandemic and urged state residents, especially minority communities, to take advantage of the vaccine availability and the multiple sites that are now operational. A dozen members of the black clergy stood behind him, and he pointed them out as supporters of the vaccines. One was shot during the event, which was broadcast live.
“It was a painful year … Death, suffering, anxiety, loss, but we got it,” Cuomo said, moving away from how his live briefings were conducted to close the event at the press, citing COVID-19 restrictions as a reason. “Now we’re at the end or the beginning of the end. Why? Because we have a vaccine,” Cuomo added.
He said the Javits Center, which has been open 24 hours a day to administer shots against COVID-19, “made more vaccines than anywhere else in the United States of America” over the weekend.
The center recorded 13,431 shots administered during the 24 hours Saturday and Sunday, and then 13,713 from Sunday to Monday morning, he said.
Cuomo also said so far about 40,000 vaccines have been administered to 48 temporary emerging sites across the state.
The state average of seven days of positivity in COVID-19 tests was 3.19%, according to state data. Of the 146,456 test results reported on Sunday, 3.62% came back positive in a total of 5,309 new cases in the state.
The seven-day average on Long Island was 4.28%, with a figure that persisted above 4% for several days. The number of new confirmed cases in Sunday’s test results was 453 in Nassau County, 552 in Suffolk County and 2,747 in New York City.
Statewide, 64 people died Sunday from virus-related causes, including six in Nassau and one in Suffolk.
In New York, a day of remembrance
Meanwhile, New York City will celebrate a year since its first death by COVID-19 on March 14 with a day of remembrance, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his daily press conference.
“We are going to mark Sunday with a day of respect and love for families who have lost loved ones in this crisis,” he said. “We will remember the people we lost. We will keep them close. But it is also a time to think about all that has happened in this city and the strength, compassion and love that New Yorkers have shown.”
Family members who have lost loved ones to the virus can submit names and pictures here. The memorial, which will begin at 7:45 p.m., will be streamed live on social media, including Twitter and Facebook.
The city vaccinated 100,000 over the weekend, accounting for up to 2.32 million New Yorkers, Blasio said.
The goal, he said, is to vaccinate 500,000 people in the city once supply increases.
The city also announced plans to vaccinate between 14,000 and 23,000 seniors with the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine over the next seven weeks. The door-to-door effort began in the cooperative city of the Bronx, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and Far Rockaway, Queens. The plan is to vaccinate at least 1,200 seniors at home each week, Blasio said.
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