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The state’s first mass drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site opened Thursday morning at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh as motorists lined up and eagerly waited to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
State officials plan to vaccinate 700 people during the site’s first day of operation – a small number for a massively large site – but may increase capacity and staff to administer 5,000 to 10,000 doses per day once the federal government increases its vaccine allowance.
“This is the biggest government operation of our lives,” Michael Kopy, state emergency management director, said at a press conference in Jones Beach.
The state’s other major immunization centers all require walk-in appointments, but visitors to Jones Beach stay in their cars the entire time – from the check-in process to the time health officials inject the drug. needle in the receiver’s arm.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said about 300,000 doses are shipped to New York each week, but more than 7 million people are now eligible for the vaccine. At the current rate, it would take six months to cross only those New Yorkers who are eligible for vaccination.
“The federal government needs to do better,” Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said. “We need Washington DC to step up and deliver doses so we can get the vaccines to protect New Yorkers.”
The Jones Beach vaccination center at Field 3 is by appointment only and open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. to anyone eligible to receive the vaccine.
The facility is staffed by volunteers and contract medical staff and only distributes Pfizer vaccine. The vaccination process, officials said, takes about 30 minutes from start to finish and appointments are made on site for a second dose.
The state opened three more mass vaccination sites on Wednesday, including one at the Javits Center in Manhattan along with other vaccination centers to be announced in the coming days, including at Stony Brook University next week.
Lisa Burke, a teacher from Massapequa, said she “got lucky” and was able to make one of the first dates available at Jones Beach.
“It’s very relieving,” Burke said as she left the South Shore site on Thursday. “It’s good to know that I can go to work and be safe. My students can be safe because I am less likely to contract COVID at this point.
And as dozens of vehicles lined up on Thursday morning as the row of cars bled on Ocean Parkway, tens of thousands of Long Islanders weren’t so lucky.
Many complained about a glitch online dating system that crashed frequently or a state hotline – 833-697-4829 – where they were repeatedly logged out when trying to schedule a date. .
And with a vaccine shortage and overwhelming demand, the next potential available appointments won’t happen until the end of April, the state said in an alert on its website Thursday.
“This deployment, if it were a consumer product, would be a huge failure and the respective people would likely have a very poor performance review at the end of the year,” said Rich Kamzan, 66, of Lido Beach, which was struggling with the state system. but was finally able to make an appointment for a vaccine Tuesday at an emergency care center in the Bronx.
Meanwhile, GOP state, county and city officials held a press conference Thursday in Hauppauge, accusing the vaccine rollout of having been a “failure” as their offices were inundated with appeals. of confused and “distraught” residents seeking information.
“Millions of New Yorkers have no idea when or where they can get their life-saving injections, and they feel utterly abandoned by their state government,” Senator Phil Boyle said (R-Bay Shore ).
State officials said they are fixing computer issues and more spots in Jones Beach and elsewhere will open once they receive additional doses from Washington, DC.
“The process is moving forward as planned,” Kopy said. “We recognize that there are some minor issues and that they are in the process of being resolved.”
Long Islanders who were lucky enough to get a date on Thursday expressed their relief and prayed that a return to normalcy was imminent.
“It’s important to get the vaccine because I’m afraid of catching the virus,” said Saul Horowitz, 86, of Melville. “The death statistics are staggering.”
Sharon Smith was able to make an appointment for her mother, Charlotte McKenna, 88, of West Islip. But Smith, from Islip, couldn’t secure a place for herself.
“Mom is at high risk and we need to get her vaccinated as soon as possible,” Smith said.
McKenna said she was “grateful” to be vaccinated.
“I’m just praying,” she said, “that things will get back to normal after this.”
With Chelsea Irizarry
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Robert Brodsky is a late-breaking reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is an alumnus of Queens College and American University.
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