New York is closing its COVID-19 mass vaccination sites, including the site at the State Fairgrounds, as of Thursday.
The Citizen quotes Department of Health spokesman Jeffery Hammond as saying “New York state’s mass vaccination sites were originally set up to rapidly deploy the COVID-19 vaccine to the public at large as efficiently as possible,” he said. “Since that time, a network of more than 8,500 providers joined the vaccination effort and now delivers the bulk of vaccinations statewide — with over 39 million doses of vaccines administered to date.”
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Many sites now offer vaccinations
The Fairgrounds site opened in the Expo Center in January 2021. The Health Department says demand for the mass vaccination sites has decreased because several places started offering vaccines, and also because of the high number of New Yorkers who have been vaccinated. The CDC says 77.7% of residents are fully vaccinated and 90.9% have received at least one dose. According to the state Department of Health, 474,417 people received at least one vaccine dose at the state fair.
The Health Department says with the wide distribution of vaccines, the cost of operating the state mass vaccination sites is no longer warranted.
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