Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Site Coming To Queens Mall This Week

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — COVID-19 vaccines will be offered at the Queens Mall this week, amid complaints from local politicians that vaccination sites are missing in parts of the borough.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that the borough’s largest mall — which is in Elmhurst and adjacent to central Queens neighborhoods including Rego Park and Forest Hills — will operate as a COVID-19 vaccination site.

The site will offer one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines, according to the city’s vaccine tracker.

The announcement of a new Queens vaccination site comes after local lawmakers, including Congresswoman Grace Meng and five other state and city politicians, sent a letter to Mayor de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo asking that sites open in the western part of the borough.

“We have heard from many local stakeholders regarding vaccine access issues for communities
west of Woodhaven Boulevard,” wrote Meng in the letter, specifically calling for sites in the neighborhoods of Middle Village, Maspeth, Glendale, and parts of Ridgewood and Woodhaven.

According to city data, over half of all adults in Elmhurst, the site of the Queens Mall vaccination site, have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to as few as 35 percent of adults in the western Queens neighborhoods that Meng represents.

“Due to the limited number of vaccination sites in this area, we are urging your office to establish a mass vaccination site in this underrepresented region of Queens County,” she said in her letter.

When asked about the letter, City Hall spokeswoman Avery Cohen told the New York Post, “with more sites opening every day, we’re doing all we can to vaccinate our Queens neighbors as quickly as possible. From pop-up sites to vaccinations for homebound New Yorkers, we will not stop until there is a shot in the arm of every person across our city.”

Over the weekend CUNY Queens College served as a pop-up vaccine site, administering Johnson & Johnson vaccines in Flushing.

State Health Department spokesman Gary Holmes also told the Post that the rate of vaccination in Queens is consistent with the statewide average.

He said, “We’re moving heaven and earth to get as many COVID-19 shots into arms as quickly and equitably as possible, using all means necessary."

As of today, 42% of all adults in Queens — over 769,0000 people — are at least partially vaccinated, compared to 41% of people in the city as a whole who have received at least one vaccine dose, city data shows.