Jones Beach COVID-19 mass vaccination site to close on July 19
Drivers line up for the COVID-19 vaccine at Jones Beach in January. Credit: James Carbone
The Jones Beach COVID-19 mass vaccination site will shut down on July 19, along with three similar locations statewide, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday.
The other state-run sites are the Conference and Event Center Niagara Falls, Plattsburgh International Airport and SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica.
Cuomo announced the closings as the number of people seeking vaccinations has declined in New York, though he has emphasized that more people need the shots to wipe out the virus.
The governor recently announced other closings of state-run vaccination sites, including one at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood.
"As our vaccination efforts continue across the state, we are continuing to target communities that have lower vaccination rates and using every tool at our disposal to make the vaccine accessible to every New Yorker," Cuomo said.
As part of that strategy, "the downscaling of our mass vaccination sites is proceeding as planned and we are shifting resources to where they are most needed, so we can get more shots into people's arms and defeat this virus once and for all," the governor said.
The Jones Beach site was once a highly coveted place to get a vaccination. When it first opened in mid-January, people scrambled to try to get an appointment — often without success.
But the numbers have dwindled as vaccines became more widely available. The site had administered a total of 199,345 shots through Sunday, state officials said.
It administered 70 on its first day of operation, Jan. 13, and hit a high of 2,285 on Feb. 21, state data shows. A total of 263 shots were given on June 17.
State officials are encouraging people to go to pharmacies, doctors' offices and other locations for their shots now, while they also run special programs in areas with low vaccination rates.
Sign up for COVID-19 text alerts at newsday.com/text.
