NYC's Public Hospital System Hits 1M COVID Vaccine Doses

NEW YORK CITY — A 12-year-old girl helped New York City's public health system usher in a milestone in the fight against the coronavirus.

Kira McAvoy — the daughter of a worker at Coney Island hospital — rolled up her sleeve Wednesday to receive the 1 millionth COVID-19 vaccine dose distributed through NYC Health + Hospitals.

The milestone dose was shown live during Mayor Bill de Blasio's daily briefing.

"It is great to see the 1 millionth dose given by Health + Hospitals," Mayor Bill de Blasio said, watching a live video of McAvoy's vaccination. "And to remember that not so long ago we were just hoping and praying we would have a vaccine, and now we have over 9 million doses given the city, 1 million given at Health + Hospitals alone."

.@NYCHealthSystem provided critical care to New Yorkers during the height of the pandemic and today they administered the 1 millionth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Thank you for leading the fight against COVID-19 and seeing this battle through to the end. pic.twitter.com/2lwiQA6vHk
— City of New York (@nycgov) June 23, 2021

The city's vaccination effort remains ongoing as certain neighborhoods and groups lag behind the city's average of 66 percent of adults who received at least one dose.

McAvoy's group — city dwellers age 0 to 17 — overall has 10 percent of people who received at least one dose, according to city data.

Not all youngsters in that group are eligible, but the 18 to 24 age range only has 53 percent who received at least one dose, data shows.

Health + Hospitals has been working to close gaps in vaccine distribution, said Mitchell Katz, the public system's president and CEO.

About 76 percent of people the system vaccinated were people of color, Katz said.

"That compares to the independent hospitals at 73 percent — they also did a great job," he said. "But compared to the hospital systems overall in New York City, they're at 56 percent. So, hugely, higher rates of vaccinating people of color for Health + Hospitals and the independent hospitals."

About 31 percent of Black city dwellers overall have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to city data. That number for Hispanic or Latino stands at 41 percent.