STONY BROOK, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — Hundreds of Stony Brook University students rolled up their sleeves Tuesday to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The university launched an initiative to give its resident students the opportunity to receive the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.
The shots were administered to more than 1,400 students at the Stony Brook Student Union. The second dose will be administered on May 4.
"Having this is going to reassure me that I don't infect my parents or my friends," said student Alex Lee. "It's very important."
"I'm so relieved to finally get it. With the whole pandemic being over a year long now I've just been waiting for some type of closure. It's not over yet, everybody needs to remember that, but we're getting there," said 18-year-old Samantha Flannery.
The university's goal is to make the fall semester be as normal as possible and Dr. Rick Gatteau, VP of Student Affairs, said the vaccinations will help make that a reality.
"Our plan is to expand it as quickly as possible over the next 30 days to get as many resident and commuter students at Stony Brook vaccinated," Gatteau said.
Meanwhile, the chancellor of SUNY schools says a program is in place to get residential students vaccinated by the end of the spring semester.
An email went out Tuesday morning to 350,000 students encouraging them to make vaccine appointments before summer break.
SUNY will receive first round of 18,600 Johnson & Johnson vaccines to be distributed at 34 campuses and is working with the state to secure additional doses which will be distributed to more campuses in weekly installments over the next several weeks.
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