Medgar Evers College will open as a mass vaccination center this Wednesday, and local leaders are urging residents to advantage of the large number of appointments.
The center will be the largest vaccination site statewide and will have the capacity to do 3,000 vaccinations per day and 21,000 per week. It is being opened and run in a partnership between the federal government and the state.
The center is aimed at addressing low rates of vaccination in Brooklyn, most notably in Central and East Brooklyn neighborhoods, and for the first week appointments are only available to those living in the following ZIP codes: 11206, 11221, 11216, 11238, 11225, 11213, 11233, 11207, 11208, 11236, 11212, 11203, 11226 and 11210. After the first week, appointments will open to everyone in the borough.
To check your eligibility and to make an appointment, visit the state website here. Alternatively, you can drop into the center or call 1-833-697-4829 to make an appointment.
Currently, groups eligible for the vaccine include: nursing home residents and staff, healthcare workers, those 65 and over, grocery workers, first responders, corrections, p-12 staff, public transport staff, restaurant and delivery workers, taxi and limousine drivers, those who live or work in shelters or other residential programs or supportive housing and those with preexisting conditions. For full criteria, click here.
The MTA will increase the number of buses from NYCHA and community centers to the center at Medgar Evers College, which will be open from 8am to 8pm daily.
On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the center and said vaccine was "the weapon that will win this war," despite the three obstacles of shortness of supply, inequitable access and vaccine hesitancy.
"COVID discriminates. COVID highlighted the injustice and racism in society," he said. "It didn't create the ugliness [in society] but it showed the ugliness. Low tide in America, COVID showed you the racism, the inequality, the injustice that was just below the surface."
Cuomo said the center at Medgar Evers College was about getting the vaccine into the communities that were most affected and making it easy for residents to access it.
Assemblymember Latrice Walker was also at Medgar Evers College Monday, and said beyond opening the site in Brooklyn it was important leaders walked hand-in-hand delivery each constituent to the site.
"It's historic, it's meaningful here at Medgar Evers College and not only that, it represents the best of State and federal partnerships and more importantly the focus is on fairness, it's on equity and it's on justice," she said.
