24/7 mega COVID-19 vaccination site to launch at Citi Field 'going to be a game-changer': de Blasio

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio announced during his daily briefing on Tuesday that there will be a new 24/7 vaccination site coming to serve New Yorkers at Citi Field.

"It's such a welcome moment for the people of this city, particularly for the people in Queens," de Blasio said. "This is going to be fantastic, this is going to help so many people to get vaccinated."

The mayor also praised the Mets organization for having "stepped up to the plate" and help the city distribute the vaccines.

"I am so grateful for that," de Blasio said. "I really appreciate the fact that the Mets wanted to do this, they wanted to be part of solving this problem and helping the Queens community and helping all of New York City."

The site is expected to give out between 5,000 and 7,000 vaccine doses per day.

"We welcome Queens residents, we welcome all New Yorkers, we even welcome Yankees fans. There's no discrimination," de Blasio added.

Mets owner Steve Cohen joined the mayor via Zoom to discuss the importance of this effort.

"We were just so excited to participate in this program. It's so important. We know the suffering that's going on with COVID and any way the organization could help support this effort we were going to do it," Cohen said. "We had talked about being involved in our communities and I can't think of any way that's more important than what this effort is."

"The goal is to just get the vaccine in people's arms so we could get this crisis over with and get back to living a normal life," Cohen added.

According to the mayor, this new Queens site will be run by NYC Health + Hospitals and is expected to launch the week of January 25.

"It'll be here soon, we've got some last-minute work to do to get it ready, but it's going to be big, it's going to be a game-changer," de Blasio added.

Vaccine mega-sites have already opened at Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park and at the Bathgate Contract Postal Station in the Bronx.

Those eligible for the vaccine can visit NYC.gov/VaccineFinder to schedule an appointment.