NYC is rolling out 2 dozen vans in an effort to ramp up vaccinations for younger students. Andrew Siff reports.
What to Know
- Stressing the success of the city's COVID-19 inoculation program that brought the Pfizer vaccine to elementary schools last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday these pop-up sites will be back
- In just over a week, more than 72,000 doses have been administered to the newly eligible age group, with a third of these vaccinations happening in pop-up school sites.
- In an effort to further amplify the success of the school vaccination program, the city will also bring vaccines to charter schools starting on Friday.
In just over a week since the city has started offering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children 5- to 11-years-old, more than 72,000 doses have been administered, with one third of these vaccinations happening in pop-up school sites.
Stressing the success of the city's COVID-19 inoculation program that brought the Pfizer vaccine to elementary schools last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday that these pop-up sites will be back at a number of schools starting Wednesday.
"We are going to be going back to some of the highest demand school sites," the mayor said during his daily coronavirus press briefing. "We are going back to a number of schools on Wednesday this week [and] a number of other schools on Thursday where we had high demand. Any places that are high demand we are going to keep sending our mobile vaccination units. Keep making sure that we can reach parents of kids who want to get vaccinated."
These school pop-up sites will also be back over a 10-day period, starting on Nov. 30 to offer second doses to any child who received the first dose at the beginning of this vaccination effort as well as "for any kid who has still not been vaccinated, we’ll provide a first dose for them," de Blasio said.
NYC Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said the city's in-school vaccination initiative highlights the important role schools play in the community.
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"We got over 26,000 young people their first dose last week but we cannot stop there," she said. "This was another great demonstration of the importance of how our schools are such a critical part of our communities and a part of building our city back. That’s why I am so happy we can continue offering our vaccine clinics at sites across the city with high demand and bring vaccines to our partners in the charter sector."
In an effort to further amplify the availability of the Pfizer shots and the success of the in-school vaccination campaign, the city will also offer vaccinations at charter schools starting on Friday.
"We are going to the next level starting on Friday and into next week – a charter school blitz. We are going to be out at charter schools doing vaccination efforts --- same thing, right in the schools, reaching all our children," de Blasio said.
"This has been a labor of love. Reaching out to our kids and families. We are going to keep doing it until we reach every single child."
