NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A mass COVID-19 vaccination site opened at Citi Field in Queens on Wednesday.
The site will serve Queens residents, as well as Taxi and Limousine Commission-licensed drivers and food delivery workers, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The site, which opened at 10 a.m. Wednesday, will operate 24 hours a day from Wednesday to Saturday.
"It is opening day at Citi Field," proclaimed Mayor Bill de Blasio, who wore a blue and orange Mets cap. "By next week will be able to do 4,000 doses a week at this site, but if we have enough vaccine supply, we will be doing 5,000 doses a day here at Citi Field."
Eligible Queens residents can make an appointment online at vaccinefinder.nyc.gov or by calling 877-VAX-4NYC.
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Officials announced that the Long Island Rail Road will make an additional stop at Mets-Willets Point on all Port Washington Branch trains to help transport people to and from the vaccination site. The additional stop at Mets-Willets Point will be made indefinitely around the clock for as long as the vaccination site remains open.
Citi Field is also served by the 7 subway line and Q48 bus.
Last week, a vaccination site opened at Yankee Stadium for Bronx residents only.
The line outside Citi Field's main gate on Wednesday morning was made up mostly of people without appointments.
“I tried through my primary doctor. I tried with my oncologist. Everybody said, ‘No vaccine.’ So I didn’t have any other choice, so I came and I wait,” a woman with cancer told WCBS 880 as she sat outside the stadium.
Queens borough President Donovan Richards called the lack of vaccines for the area "shameful."
“Seven thousand lives lost here—friends, family members, folks we know in Elmhurst died, so we need to see more equity when it comes to the vaccine distribution,” Richards said.
Citi Field has gotten 800 vaccines for the next four days, compared to Yankee Stadium, which gets 2,200 vaccines a day.
De Blasio said the Yankee Stadium site is being handled by the state, while the Citi Field site is being handled by the city.
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