NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced a new mobile vaccine bus fleet will launch in New York City this week in an effort to continue to get more residents vaccinated.
According to de Blasio, the mobile buses can administer between 150 to 200 doses per day and will mainly focus on vaccinating residents in the city’s hardest hit areas.
“This is an approach that's really going to help us reach a lot of people who are being missed so far, but this will take the vaccinations right to them,” the mayor said.
De Blasio said the buses will launch in Sunset Park on Wednesday and will focus on vaccinating restaurant workers and delivery workers first.
“These are folks who have been heroic during this whole pandemic. They have been making sure New Yorkers are fed. They've been out there. They've been vulnerable. Obviously, a number of them happen to be undocumented folks. We need to reach them,” the mayor said.
The city’s mobile vaccine fleet currently includes 20 buses with six exam rooms each, as well as a registration area to store vaccine doses.
The bus will have in-person staff who speak English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese available and also includes an ADA lift, which allows it to give the vaccine to any New Yorker according to the head of the Test and Trace Corps, Dr. Ted Long.
“This bus is going to make a difference,” de Blasio said. “It's another new approach. We're going to keep innovating new approaches.”
The buses will be offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, meaning recipients will not need to schedule a second shot.
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