Nassau Legislators Call For Vaccination Site At Nassau Coliseum

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — The Republican majority of the Nassau County Legislature is calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to open a new max vaccination site at Nassau Coliseum.

On Thuresday morning, the majority held a hearing to examine the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine in the county. Citing the recent opening of a mass vaccination site at Yankee Stadium for Bronx residents, Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello said the state should take a similar approach at Nassau Coliseum.

“Just today, the governor announced a mass vaccination site at Yankee stadium that will administer more than 15,000 doses — almost more than Nassau County has administered since the vaccine rollout began," Nicolello said. "That is why I join my colleagues on behalf of Nassau County residents struggling to receive the vaccine, in asking that the governor open up a mass vaccination site at the Nassau Coliseum. This will allow more residents to get tested, lower our infection rate, and allow more businesses to open, and continue to rebuild."

The state currently runs two mass vaccination sites: one at Jones Beach and one at Stony Brook University. Nassau County runs two vaccination sites: one at Nassau Community College and another at the YES Community Counseling Center. The county only receives a few hundred doses of vaccine a week to administer to residents.

According to the legislators, Nassau Coliseum is an ideal site for a mass vaccination center: it's centrally located, has plenty of parking and space to maintain social distancing, and can handle a large number of people at once when the vaccine distribution increases.

"This mass vaccination site will allow more residents to get tested, lower our infection rate, and allow more businesses to open and continue to rebuild," the legislators wrote in a letter to Cuomo.

A spokesman for Cuomo's office said Long Island has already received hundreds of thousands of doses of coronavirus vaccine — second only to New York City.

“These legislators either haven’t been paying attention for months or are playing politics with public health — and they need to stop misleading their constituents," said spokesman Jack Sterne. "The reality is Long Island has received the most vaccines in the state after New York City, we’ve launched two mass vaccination sites on Long Island, and we’ve deployed seven community vaccine hubs to the region, with more in the works. The single limiting factor is a lack of supply, and we didn’t hear these politicians speaking up when their party was still in the White House and they could have made a difference.”