NYC subway stations will now offer COVID-19 vaccines
Some Big Apple subways and LIRR and Metro-North stations are being turned into pop-up COVID-19 vꦺaccinᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚation sites this week in an effort to boost lagging immunizations, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
Those people receiving the vaccine — Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot dose only — at a subway station will receive a free seven-day MetroCard pass, while Long Island Rail Road and Metro-♛North riders can expect two free trips, Cuomo said.
“Get a shot, and take a free ride on the MTA,’’ th๊e go🌸vernor said a press briefing.
“Y♓ou are walking into the subway station anyway. You are walking past the vaccination site. It’s a one-shot vaccination,” he said.
The New York City train stations where free walk-up vaccinations will be doled out Wednesday 🐻through Sunday are: Penn Station, 3 to 8 p.m.; Grand Central Terminal, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Broadway Junction, 3 to 8 p.m.; 179th Street in Jamaica, Queens, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and East 180th Street in The Bronx, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The LIRR’s Hempstead station and Metro-North’s Ossining stop will also be giving out the vaccines, both frꦰom 3 to 8 p.m.
Up to 300 people a day can be vaccinated at each ▨site, Cuomo said.
And even tourists can now take advantage of such programs, the governor said — after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the move last week.
“I forgot to mention, we are opening vaccines — we’re waiving the residency requirement on vaccines,” the governor said. “Anyone from out of state can get a vaccine in New York. So if you’re a tourist and you come to New York, we’ll give you a vaccine.”
But some straphangers seemed dubious getting a coronavirus jab in the gritt🧸y rail system.
“Subways are dirty, unclean and [the most] unsanitized places ever,” said Isys Morel, an 18-year-old student from Harlem. “You see people peeing in the subway station.”
An Upper West Side woman who identified herself as Chrissy D. added, “If people don’t go to the local pharmacies on every corner, what makes [the state] think people will get [vaccinated] in the subway?”
Still, she said the free transit tickets are “actually a good idea for incentive, and also, hopefully, getting more homeless vaccinated, plus maybe tourists.”
Offic꧒ials said the transit immunization push is limited for now so they can see what works best where and when.
“We have a lot of theories, we’re going to test them,” Cuomo said.
“It is a creative idea — because we have to get the vaccinations up,.”
Cuomo has noted that while older people are ge🐠tting vaccinated at a fast pace, the younger sect is not.
Some 41 percent of MTA employees have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine, a rep for the authority said. Employee surveys suggest the number is even higher — with just over 50 percent of transit workers have received at least one dose.
The state’s immunization push came as de Blasio announced Gotham will give away free tickets to everywhere from the Bronx Zoo to Lincoln Center to those who get vaccinated.
“We’ve got to make it easier, we got to make it more fun, we’ve got to make it more local,” the mayor said of vaccinations at a separate briefing.
He said those getting immunized could get free tickets to: the New York City Aquarium; New York Botanical Garden; Brookly🍷n Botanic Garden; Bronx Zoo; Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Cyclones, the New York City Football Club and the New York City Ferry. They also can receive a membership to the Public Theater.
Last week, Cuomo w🐭ould begin offering free tickets to fans when they get vaccinated at ballgames.
Additional reporting by David Meyer
