NEW YORK — The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio highlighted vaccine statistics Monday that show that a large chunk of doses administered at state-run sites in New York City are going to people who live outside the city.
At the vaccine site at the Aqueduct race track in Queens, 75% of the shots have gone to residents outside of the city.
At the Javits Center vaccine site, 42% of the shots have gone to residents outside of New York City.
Bill Neidhardt, de Blasio’s press secretary, called the data the administration highlighted to reporters “damning.”
“This clearly shows New York City is not getting our fair share of doses,” Neidhardt said in a statement shared with reporters. “It shows equity is being shortchanged. That’s unacceptable.”
Yet it is not clear from the data whether those people work in New York City — which makes them eligible to receive the vaccine at any city site. At a Monday morning press conference, the city’s health commissioner said its health department does not keep data on how many New York City residents are getting their vaccines from state-run sites outside the city.
De Blasio has long complained of restrictions on the city’s vaccination program enforced by the state, saying that the city does not receive its proportionate share of the state’s vaccine allotment from the federal government, and that the share does not take into account non-NYC residents vaccinated at city-based sites. He has also formally asked — and been denied permission by the state’s health commissioner — to use supply earmarked for second doses as first doses.
De Blasio acknowledged Monday that city residents getting vaccinated at state sites outside the city could be evening out the geographic distribution of the vaccine “to some degree.” De Blasio suggested that certain state-run sites may have geographic disparities because they are open to anyone, and not limited to area residents.
“As we’re fighting these disparities, we need more transparency about what’s going on,” he said.
Jack Sterne, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said in response that the mayor’s focus on geographic disparity “doesn’t make sense.”
“We are unsure why Mayor de Blasio is against vaccinating teachers who educate New York City children; firefighters, EMTs, nurses, police officers, and doctors who protect New York City residents; and transit workers who keep our subways and buses moving, just because they live in a different county,” Sterne said in a statement emailed to reporters.
Sterne defended the administration’s commitment to vaccine distribution equity, saying that state-run pop-up sites have vaccinated 40,000 people “in hard-hit communities of color.”
The state also recently opened up two major vaccine sites in Brooklyn and Queens in predominantly non-white areas, in partnership with the federal government.
To date, New York City has administered 1,944,673 doses of the vaccines, putting the city on track to fully vaccinate 5 million people by June, de Blasio said Monday morning.
Monday marks one year since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New York, on March 1, 2020.