A vaccination site will be set up on Buffalo's East Side as efforts ramp up to reach neighborhoods with higher infection rates and more hesitancy toward getting the Covid-19 vaccine.
About 1,000 people per day are to be vaccinated at the Delavan-Grider Community Center beginning March 3, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday.
The governor also announced that a pop-up vaccination center will be located at Native American Community Services, 1005 Grant St.
Wednesday's announcements came a day after Erie County announced plans to convert the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center into a 24-hour mass vaccination clinic that could administer shots to more than 3,000 people a day. Opening that county site, which won't happen until March or April, depends on an expected influx of vaccine doses as spring arrives.
Both initiatives are part of state and county efforts to expand access to vaccines as the federal government boosts the number of doses it is sending to states.
People are also reading…
New Yorkers who are eligible for the vaccine must navigate a checkerboard of pharmacies, county clinics and state vaccination sites that are administering the shots, which has led to complaints of long waiting lists and limited appointments. But as county and state officials scramble to expand vaccine distribution, they are also focused on reaching underserved communities.
"I'm very concerned about the fairness of the distribution," Cuomo said. "In the City of Buffalo, one side of town, 7% got it. The other side of town, 4% got it."
The Delavan-Grider Community Center will be one of four new mass vaccination sites in New York that will receive vaccine supplies directly from the federal government, Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters.
The four centers are to be located in "socially vulnerable communities," especially heavily Black neighborhoods.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes said the neighborhood is one of the hardest hit by Covid-19 in her district and in Buffalo.
“It is my hope that this FEMA site will lead to increased access to opportunity, reduced health disparities and improved health equity to protect communities of color most at risk of contracting Covid-19," Peoples-Stokes said. "I look forward to the day that we can put all of this behind us and society returns to a new normal.”
"We know we have a vaccine hesitancy problem, especially with the Black community," Cuomo said. The state will make "special efforts" to overcome that with help from local and community leaders, the governor said.
The state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will operate the Delavan-Grider site jointly, and members of the National Guard will be assigned to help staff it, Cuomo said.
"This is a very big and aggressive effort to address vaccine hesitancy in the Black community," Cuomo said.
The governor said he told county and city leaders on Tuesday that the vaccine distribution system, which he said "is no doubt confusing," needs to be fair.
"This is a precious resource. Everybody wants it. There's not enough," Cuomo said. "The best you can do is make sure that you were fair."
He said Erie County is one area that needs more mass vaccination sites.
"Look at the fairness and correct for the fairness," Cuomo said. "If Cheektowaga is low, open up a site in Cheektowaga. If the East Side of Buffalo is low, open up a site in the East Side of Buffalo."
The Native American Community Services vaccination center will be one of 13 new pop-up centers at community centers, public housing complexes and cultural centers around the state. It opens Saturday, but appointments are already filled, according to the governor's office.
Cuomo said 43,000 people have received first doses of the vaccine at the 91 earlier pop-up sites in largely Black areas, including some in Western New York.
Appointments at the Delavan-Grider Community Center and the other sites announced Wednesday in Rochester, Albany and Yonkers initially will be reserved for members of the community in which the sites are located. Community engagement efforts will be used to help and encourage community members sign up for appointments. More scheduling information, opening dates and hours of operation will be made available in the coming days, according to the governor.
"The Delavan-Grider Community Center is an excellent location for this important effort. I encourage residents to take advantage of this great resource. We need full participation to end this public health emergency," Mayor Byron W. Brown said.
Cuomo said Wednesday's positivity rate for Covid tests was 3.58% statewide and 3.1% in Western New York. He said the seven-day rolling average for positivity, which was 3.6%, has fallen for 40 consecutive days and stands at its lowest figure since Nov. 28.
On vaccination, Cuomo said 3.3 million doses have been administered, and about 1 million people have received two doses. Cuomo said 94% of the doses sent to New York have been administered to patients.
