Staten Island COVID vaccination site announced; borough pols call for quick ramp up on borough

Clinic

Located at 165 Vanderbilt Avenue, the NYC Health + Hospitals Gotham Health/Vanderbilt clinic will be Staten Island's first vaccination hub. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)Jan Somma-Hammel

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York City’s Health + Hospital’s Vanderbilt clinic will be the borough’s first COVID-19 vaccination hub and will begin taking appointments as soon as Wednesday.

The news of the city-run vaccination site was announced by Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) Tuesday, just a day after Mayor Bill de Blasio said the first three hubs would be located in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

No further details about the Vanderbilt hub, such as hours of operation, have been announced.

Borough President James Oddo, who had a conversation with the city on Tuesday, said his understanding is the Vanderbilt hub will be for frontline medical staff who are not a part of a hospital system and see patients daily, such as dentists, physical therapists and urgent care workers.

In addition to the hubs targeting specialized populations, each borough will eventually have what the city is calling mass vaccination sites; the first three will be The Bronx at Bathgate Industrial Park, Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Army Terminal Annex Building, and at Manhattan’s La Marqueta.

City Hall did not return a request for comment when asked about a timeline for when a Staten Island site will open and what city or community-based organizations the city is looking at for potential vaccination sites.

De Blasio said the city-run mass vaccination sites will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Oddo said he believes, based on his conversation with the city, that the mass vaccination sites will be for the general public.

“We were told that the Staten Island site will be identified shortly. I can’t explain to you why the need to announce three of the five sites that will address vaccinating the general public, why someone thought that was a smart thing to do,” Oddo said, referencing the mayor’s announcement of the Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan sites on Tuesday.

Although the timeline is unclear, establishing city-run mass vaccination sites is likely to take some time, particularly because New York is still in Phase 1a of vaccination, targeting medical workers and long-term care facilities.

“Best estimate that we got from the city is a ways away,” Oddo said.

BOROUGH OFFICIALS CALL FOR MORE STATEN ISLAND SITES

When he made the announcement about the Vanderbilt hub, Matteo also said he’s pushing for additional sites on Staten Island.

Assemblyman Michael Reilly said he, too, hopes additional vaccination sites will be announced on Staten Island in short order.

He says sites using already existing infrastructure should be prioritized, like the drive-thru COVID-19 test site on the grounds of South Beach Psychiatric Center and the Mt. Loretto location, but he believes the lack of a public hospital may make the borough the last thought when sites are being developed.

“I think one of the shortfalls, and this is always the case whenever we’re talking about healthcare, the lack of a New York City public hospital here. If you think about it, when Health + Hospitals is talking about the delivery of the vaccines and potential storage they’re going to consider their own capabilities and their own storage facilities and dispensing facilities. So, if you don’t have a specific location in an area why are you going to think about that area? I think that might be the missing connection,” Reilly said.

Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) also said existing infrastructure on Staten Island should be utilized.

“Why we haven’t decided to use existing H+H testing facilities as vaccine hubs is beyond me,” Borelli said.

“For example, in my district Mt. Loretto is being used as a testing site -- there’s ample parking, ample space to expand services, why can’t they say we’re going to say they’re going to use the other half of the gym to do vaccines?” Borelli said.

BORELLI SIDES WITH DE BLASIO, SAYS CUOMO NEEDS TO EXPAND PRIORITY LIST

Even though Borelli questioned several of the city’s decisions, or lack thereof, regarding vaccine distribution hubs, he said his larger issue is with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s priority list, which largely dictates who can get vaccinated first.

“Only one person in New York state put his big ugly face in front of a box of vaccines to let us know who is boss and now, and when things are going poorly he’s trying to abscond his responsibility and blame everybody else from the mayor, to the president, to the hospitals,” he said.

“I think the mayor is correct; if you enlarge the pool of people like Florida is doing, you’ll get people queued up at a vaccine site. It’s better to get people queued up that are ready, willing and able to get vaccinated than having vaccines sitting in the freezer.”

The mayor has been asking the state to expand its list of priority individuals so that more people citywide can get vaccinated quicker.

“Expand the categories to we can reach all of the people who need the vaccine as quick as possible. We want to get the folks who want to get the vaccine,” de Blasio said.

He’s also asking that private pharmacies and providers be offered an incentive to be able vaccinate patients the way testing was incentivized.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated from a previous version that said the city’s goal is to vaccinate 100,000 people combined at pop-up sites. The city’s goal is to vaccinate 100,000 people this week.

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