East Harlem To Get Coronavirus Mass Vaccination Site, Mayor Says

EAST HARLEM, NY — The city plans to open five coronavirus mass-vaccination sites in high-need neighborhoods around the city, including one in East Harlem, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

The site will be at La Marqueta, the outdoor marketplace under the Metro-North railroad tracks on Park Avenue, de Blasio said.

Beyond that, details were sparse about the five sites, which will be housed in each borough. The city hopes to open two of the sites by this weekend, according to the mayor, but he did not specify which those would be.

City Councilmember Diana Ayala, who represents East Harlem, welcomed the news but said she had been unaware that La Marqueta would serve as a vaccination site until she saw media reports about it Tuesday morning.

She said the choice was unexpected, noting that some neighbors had expected that the pop-up vaccination site at the East Harlem Neighborhood Action Center would be expanded to serve more people.

"It’s exciting to see that they’re trying to roll it out as quickly as they can," Ayala said.

So far, New York is only offering the COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers, residents and employees of long-term care facilities, coroners and medical examiners, and a few other select groups who make up Phase 1A of the state's vaccine rollout. Those are the groups that could flock to the mass-vaccination sites.

"We want to create public sites where anyone in the appropriate categories can come, 24/7, and get vaccinated," de Blasio said. "They’ll be in all five boroughs."

East Harlem has been among the hardest-hit areas by COVID-19. The 10029 ZIP code, which covers much of the neighborhood and includes La Marqueta, has suffered at least 223 deaths, the most of any Manhattan ZIP code.

De Blasio argued that the sites would help speed up the city's rollout, amid criticism that the effort has been sluggish so far.

On Sunday, City Councilmember Mark Levine, who represents West Harlem, questioned why vaccinations were "basically only occurring during regular business hours," and slowing down on weekends and holidays.

"We are in a war-like situation. We need to be vaccinating TWENTY FOUR-SEVEN," Levine wrote on Twitter. "We are losing precious time."

De Blasio said the new sites would aim to vaccinate a combined 100,000 New Yorkers each week, helping the city reach its goal of 1 million vaccine doses administered by the end of the month.

Vaccination in New York City is basically only occurring during regular business hours. Very little on weekends. Almost none on holidays.

We are in a war-like situation. We need to be vaccinating TWENTY FOUR-SEVEN. We are losing precious time. pic.twitter.com/BpOpCRHVby
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 3, 2021