On Jan. 31, as reported by Norwood News, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City’s taskforce on racial inclusion and equity announced a plan to prioritize vaccine availability to an expanded list of 33 neighborhoods hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial list of priority neighborhoods already included parts of the Northwest Bronx like Fordham Heights, Fordham Manor, University Heights, Kingsbridge, and Kingsbridge Heights.

 

The expanded list now includes the Bronx neighborhoods of Williamsbridge, Baychester and Edenwald. Also previously included were Mott Haven and Melrose, Belmont and East Tremont, Parkchester and Soundview, Highbridge and Concourse, Morrisania and Crotona and Hunts Point and Longwood.

 

Though this may provide some assurance to Bronx Community Board 7 (CB 7) residents that certain Bronx neighborhoods are indeed being prioritized, especially those which bore the brunt of the initial stages of the pandemic, a new worry is now whether there will actually be enough of a vaccination supply to go around.

 

As part of the “Vaccine for All” initiative launched to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine, the plan will prioritize vaccines for residents in neighborhoods identified by the Taskforce based on a range of factors including high COVID-19 mortality and case rates, high prevalence of chronic illness, presence of overcrowded housing, the number of individuals experiencing poverty, and other preexisting health disparities.

 

“We launched our vaccine effort with a clear commitment to provide a vaccine for all New Yorkers,” said the mayor in a Jan. 31 press release. “Now we are going even further to ensure the vaccine reaches everyone, equally, with a focus on the neighborhoods we know have borne the brunt of COVID-19.”

 

Additionally, in the targeted areas, eligible front-line workers will have access to the City’s family plan allowing them to schedule vaccine appointments for eligible family members.

 

To support the City’s Vaccine for All initiative, New York City Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at his regular press conference on Friday, Jan. 29, a plan to convert Yankees Stadium into a large-scale COVID vaccination site specifically for Bronx residents.

 

The joint effort between New York State, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Yankees, Somos Community Care, and the New York National Guard will help expedite vaccine distribution and alleviate the borough’s sustained battle against the spread of the coronavirus. Details have since been announced that the site will be opened on Friday, Feb. 5, as reported by Norwood News. 

 

The Bronx’s COVID-19 positivity rate was the highest in the City at 7.06 percent over a seven-day average as of Jan. 29. Meanwhile, Manhattan’s average was the lowest at 3.47 percent. According to City and State officials, the surge in cases can be traced back to an increase in social gatherings during the holiday season, roughly between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. During his Jan. 29th press conference, Cuomo acknowledged a steady statewide decline after the initial post-holiday surge. However, the Bronx still struggles as one of the City’s hardest-hit boroughs when it comes to community spread of the virus.

 

At this month’s Bronx CB 7 Health and Human Services Committee meeting, Anita Reyes, executive director of the Bronx Neighborhood Health Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness, emphasized the need for Bronxites to adhere to mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand hygiene guidelines to tamp down the borough’s recent surge, and stop the spread, especially in areas drawing increased concern, which include Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights and Fordham Heights.

 

“If you’re sick, if you have any symptoms like a quick cough or a fever in the morning, stay home. Treat it like it’s COVID,” said Reyes. “We have to continue wearing the facemask. It’s important. Sometimes I’m walking down the block, and I see people wearing it on their chin. That’s not going to protect folks. You have to make sure it’s covering your nose, even if you’ve had the vaccine.”

 

The first COVID-19 vaccine to be administered in the United States was on Dec. 14, 2020 in Queens, to Long Island Jewish Medical Center ICU nurse, Sandra Lindsay. Since then, the City has operated a phased roll-out of the vaccine, prioritizing eligible front-line workers and New Yorkers 65 years and older. However, as Norwood News reported, a month after the first vaccine was administered, the mayor announced on Friday, Jan. 15, during an interview on WNYC, that the City was poised to run out.

 

“We will run out of vaccine next week in New York City,” said de Blasio. “The supply should go to where there is an infrastructure to get it into people’s arms. We know there is supply in this country not being used.”

 

As previously reported by Norwood News, on Monday, Jan. 18, after it was reported that New York State was running low on vaccine doses, the governor announced he had asked drug company, Pfizer, which is based in New York, if the State could purchase the COVID-19 vaccine directly from the company.

 

He said, unlike Moderna, Pfizer is not bound to commitments under Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s vaccine plan. The mayor had previously set a goal of administering one million vaccine doses by the end of January but with the vaccine most likely not becoming available to the broader public until summer 2021, Bronx resident and Health and Human Services Committee member, Alfred Grant, voiced his concerns during the CB7 committee meeting on whether supply will meet demand.

 

“But now the question is, since we are entering into the realm of having vaccines for the community, are we going to be running out? Because if you listen to the news of the governor and the mayor, they tell different stories,” Grant said. “They’re saying we may be running out. Is there any truth to that or is there enough for the community?”

 

On Jan. 29, Cuomo announced that New York State had used 100 percent of the vaccine supply it had been allocated over the past six weeks. “That does not mean we’ve run out,” he said. “We [will] start to receive the next week’s allocation. That’s where we are now. We get another 250,000 doses that’s starting to be delivered.”

 

Since distribution began in early January, the federal government provided a weekly allotment of roughly 250,000 vaccines for the over seven million New Yorkers eligible for immunization.

 

As of Feb. 2, although 2 million people in New York State have now received the vaccine, supply has fallen way short of demand, and local health centers like Bronx Neighborhood Health have struggled to vaccinate their most vulnerable. “We need additional vaccines. The supply is limited,” Reyes said. “We’re waiting on the federal government to give us more because we need more.”

 

President Joe Biden announced in late January that New York State would receive 16 percent more COVID-19 vaccines (now 20 percent) for the next three weeks, increasing supplies at city and local health departments. However, health centers such as Bronx Neighborhood Health have yet to receive updates on how that supply increase will be distributed.

 

The next Bronx CB 7 Health and Human Services Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 6.30 p.m. The event will be held virtually. For more on the City’s Vaccine for All initiative, visit: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-vaccines.page. To find a vaccination site near you, go to https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov/.