On Sunday, Jan. 10, The Bushwick Educational Campus will be made into one of New York City’s initial school-based “vaccine hubs,” a part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to scale up the number of places that New Yorkers can get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Located on Irving Avenue, The Bushwick Educational Campus will be one of three schools to open as vaccine hubs on Sunday. The others will be Hillcrest High School in Queens and the South Bronx Educational Campus.
The city plans to open at least 250 vaccine hubs by the end of January so that it can accomplish its goal of vaccinating 1 million New Yorkers before the month is over. As of January 6, just under 120,000 New Yorkers have received the vaccine.
“This is the shape of things to come,” de Blasio said during a press conference. “You’re going to see a lot more like this, using public school buildings as hubs for a larger community. This is a model to start getting us to the grassroots where we can make so much impact.”
We will be using @NYCSchools buildings as #COVID19 vaccination hubs, starting THIS Sunday. We will make sure we can get vaccine doses to the communities that need it most. https://t.co/6ps8rcngvu
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 5, 2021
The city is off to a slow start, partially caused by the strict guidelines surrounding who can receive the vaccine. However, the pace is expected to speed up as more New Yorkers become eligible.
On Jan. 4, a significantly larger group of healthcare workers, including dentists and physical therapists, were given permission to receive the vaccine.
“This expansion of eligibility to more New Yorkers will enable us to get the vaccine to hundreds of thousands more New Yorkers in the coming weeks,” Melanie Hartzog, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, said during a press conference.
By next week, eligibility is expected to expand to an even larger group of healthcare professionals, including at-home health care providers, hospice workers and personal care aides.
Starting in February, it is expected that those over the age of 75 will be eligible for the vaccine. By early spring, those over the age of 65 and those with certain underlying health conditions should be eligible to be vaccinated. By summertime, it is likely that everyone else will become eligible.
“I know it won’t be easy for us or anyone else,” Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said during the press conference. “I know that this is going to be an intense month as we scale up capacity to meet both eligibility and supply, even as we continue fighting back the second wave. We also want to make sure that New Yorkers can get their questions answered about who is eligible and other natural questions, like what kind of screening is required and how to book an appointment.”
To view vaccine locations and to book an appointment to be vaccinated, click here.
For eligibility updates, click here.
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