BUFFALO (WBEN) - On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced 35 community-based pop-up vaccination sites at various churches, community centers and public housing complexes around the state.
People lined up outside the Belle Center on Buffalo's West Side for their appointment only first doses.
"It's what we call a pop-up vaccination site, designed to reach hard to reach communities," said State Senator Sean Ryan. "This is a community on the West Side with low internet connectivity, a lot of people don't have cars, so we're bringing the vaccination site right to the community, and as you can see hundreds of people are here already."
Along with the Belle Center, Western New York pop-up sites include Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo, Second Baptist Church in Lackawanna, Wrobel Towers in Niagara Falls, and the Doris Jones Family Resource Building in Niagara Falls.
As has been the case with previous pop-up sites, these sites will be re-established in three weeks to administer second doses.
It's expected that these sites will vaccinate roughly 25,000 people this week, and the state says other pop-up locations will continue to be established at other public housing complexes statewide.
"Each time somebody in Western New York gets immunized, it makes it safer for the rest of us, as it helps to break the chain of contagion," said Ryan.
