New York City opened two massive COVID-19 vaccination hubs Sunday to prepare for a potential onslaught from the next eligible group — including teachers, cops and transit workers — Monday.
A steady stream of already approved front-line health care workers showed up at one of the new sites, Brooklyn’s Army Terminal in Sunset Park, to make appointments to get their shots as it opened at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“Until yesterday, this was a testing site, and today, we flipped the switch, and it is now a vaccine hub,’’ senior project manager Shifra Goldenberg said of the center — which, along with the other newly opened facility in The Bronx, goes around the clock within a day.
“Today, we saw about 30 patients. Tomorrow, we go big with 24/7 and start increasing the number of patients,” the official said.
“We don’t have an end date. … Our goal is to be here until we are done vaccinating the people of New York.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio toured the second newly opened center, the Bathgate Industrial Park in Morrisiana in The Bronx, on Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, school employees including teachers, first responders such as police and firefighters and public transit workers are allowed to begin getting vaccinated.
They join workers such as doctors, nurses, COVID testing and inoculation staffers and nursing home employees and residents who had already gotten the green light.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo finally allowed the additional groups to begin getting immunizations this week after intense pressure from critics including de Blasio, who claimed that the governor’s overly restrictive rollout plan was unnecessary and risked the loss of some doses of the fragile vaccines.
As of Saturday overnight, fewer than half the vaccines that the city has received had been doled out, or 203,181 out of 524,425, according to the local government website.
Of the slightly more than 203,000 shots administered, 185,760 were first doses of the two-dose inoculations.
United Federal of Teachers president Mike Mulgrew showed up at an already operating vaccine site, Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens, on Sunday to promote educators’ upcoming access to the vacinations — and watched school registered nurse Cynthia Bennett get a shot in the arm.
“This afternoon, we are emailing every UFT member. We will be getting priority access for everyone that says that they want a vaccine,” Mulgrew said.
Bennett was one of hundreds of already approved health care workers to get the vaccine at the site Sunday.
“To the teachers, I say, this is our best chance to battle the pandemic,’’ the nurse said. “I listened to the science, and I did some research, and I feel this is the safest and best way.’’
