Open COVID Vaccine To All In 33 Hard-Hit Nabes, Candidates Say

NEW YORK CITY — All adult New Yorkers who live and work in the city's 33 hardest-hit neighborhoods should be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, two high-profile candidates said.

The two-step proposal jointly unveiled Thursday by mayoral candidate Scott Stringer and Mark Levine, who's running for Manhattan borough president, would effectively eliminate vaccination restrictions in those neighborhoods.

Their plan also calls to set aside up to half of all vaccine slots in mass vaccination sites so residents of undeserved, largely lower-income communities of color can do walk-ins — a strategy Stringer said has boosted inoculation rates in other cities.

"Right now, there are 33 neighborhoods, many communities of color, where infection rates are still too high," Stringer said. "From southeast Queens to south Brooklyn to Washington Heights to the south Bronx. Across our city, there are actually 12 zip codes with double-digit positivity."

We're in a race against COVID-19 variants and against time.

Our communities are still getting hammered.

That's why @MarkLevineNYC and I are proposing to lift vaccine restrictions in 30+ hard-hit neighborhoods as part of a two-step vaccination plan to beat back the virus. pic.twitter.com/zoeJZwmMY4
— Scott Stringer (@scottmstringer) March 25, 2021

Levine framed the vaccination disparities — which are as low as a third the city's average — as a matter of equity.

“This is unacceptable from a moral perspective,” he said. “It is also major barrier to this city achieving herd immunity.”

The second step of Stringer's and Levine's proposal calls for opening up vaccine eligibility to all New Yorkers over 16 years old.

Both prongs would depend largely on state approval — and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been hesitant to significantly expand eligibility, despite growing calls to do so.

President Joe Biden has called for states to open up eligibility to adults by May 1.

Cuomo on Wednesday said the state doesn't receive enough doses to expand eligibility just yet.

"I don't want to say we're going to open up to 30-year-olds in three weeks and then something happens with the allocation like it happened, and then I say, 'Whoops, sorry,'" he said.

Several states have significantly eligibility requirements than New York, which was particularly hard-hit during the pandemic's early days.

Levine said the 33 communities were among those.

"There's a lot of talk about reluctance but what we have here first and foremost is a lack of access in the communities that need it and the communities that are getting left behind," he said.

The 33 neighborhoods can be found here.

LIVE: We must lift vaccine eligibility restrictions in our hardest-hit neighborhoods. https://t.co/loe1G89OZk
— Scott Stringer (@scottmstringer) March 25, 2021