Governor Andrew Cuomo says New York has seen COVID kill black people at twice the rate of white people, and COVID infection rates three times higher in the black and hispanic communities. So he says the state has worked out a federal-state partnership to open vaccination sites in “socially vulnerable” communities across the state.
Cuomo says each site will be able to handle thousands of vaccinations per day, with a special dosage allocation from the federal government. State and National Guard personnel will staff each one.
The governor says this is only a first step, worked out with the help of the White House COVID-19 Coordinator, Jeff Zients. Zeints said by remote link to a press conference that they need to build more such sites around the nation. He said that’s part of President Biden’s strategy to fight the pandemic. He said they’ve increased the supply of vaccine to states and Native American Nations by 28 percent in the last three weeks.