A mass vaccination site is opening today at Bronx’s Co-Op City, the largest single residential development in the United States. The vaccination site is open to all eligible CoViD-19 vaccination recipients, and has also reserved 200 vaccinations exclusively for residents today. The Co-op City site will be open Monday through Saturday, between the hours of 07:00 a.m. and 07:00 p.m.
The vaccination site, run by the New York City Department of Health, will administer approximately 500 vaccines each day to start. The site will eventually administer 1,000 shots per day when the program is fully ramped up, with continued vaccinations reserved for Co-Op City residents.
Additionally, New York City will kick-off its new program to vaccinate homebound elderly people starting in Co-Op City today, Mayor de Blasio announced, followed by Brighton Beach in Brooklyn on Friday. The program will eventually expand to other neighborhoods as the city receives more vaccine supply.
“Co-Op City’s 50,000 residents can now easily access a vaccine right in their backyard,” says Robert Klehammer, Executive General Manager of Riverbay Corporation, which manages Co-Op City. “This is a big win for Co-Op City and its neighbors because it eliminates roadblocks and makes the vaccine easily accessible, especially for elderly and vulnerable homebound residents.”
The development is a New York State Mitchell-Lama housing cooperative (meaning it is affordable to the middle class) and lower-income New Yorkers have been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic. Despite statewide declines in CoViD-19 positivity rates and hospitalizations, numbers remain high in the Bronx, particularly in the south and northeast sections of the borough, where Co-Op City is located. “This vaccination site is a much-welcomed positive step towards helping those who need it most,” says Riverbay’s Executive General Manager Robert Klehammer.
