NYC EMS Workers Roll Up Sleeves For Coronavirus Vaccine

NEW YORK CITY — New York’s finest became the latest group in the city to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

But the first vaccinations for FDNY EMS workers on Wednesday proved bittersweet. Just hours before they started rolling up their sleeves, one of their own — 27-year veteran Evelyn Ford — died from COVID-19.

“It really points to how important the vaccinations are to our members,” said Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro. “We have had, in a department of 17,000 folks, close to 6,000 of them have had COVID over the past nine months. It's an incredible number. We have over 600 people right now on medical leave with COVID.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio, at his daily briefing, sent his condolences to Ford’s family. He said Ford is the 12th FDNY member to die of COVID-19.

“Very, very sad that just now as we finally get to turn the corner... the vaccine is finally arrived, we lose a good woman who served us so well for so long,” he said.

The vaccinations rolled out to FDNY EMS members after the department received a shipment of a Moderna-developed COVID-19 vaccines. Firefighters are slated to start receiving doses on Dec. 29, officials said.

Officials estimate they can vaccinate 450 per day at three locations — FDNY Headquarters in Brooklyn, Randall’s Island Training Academy and EMS Academy in Fort Totten.

“This will continue throughout the next few weeks and as more vaccine arrives, more become available to us, we hope to have our entire department vaccinated and protected at some point,” Nigro said.

The vaccine is not mandatory for FDNY members but strongly recommended, officials said.