Yankee Stadium’s Mass Coronavirus Vaccination Site Opens Friday

NEW YORK CITY — A big swing in New York City’s effort against the coronavirus will take place within the famed Yankee Stadium.

Yankee Stadium will open Friday as a mass coronavirus vaccination site serving people in the Bronx, the borough currently hardest hit by the virus.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio both announced the site on Wednesday and touted it as a major step forward toward providing equal vaccine access to Black, Brown and poor New Yorkers.

“Yankee Stadium has always been known for its World Series banners, but now it’ll be recognized as a place where the people of the surrounding community in the Bronx can receive the vaccine doses that they need and deserve,” de Blasio said in a statement. “This is about justice and standing up for the neighborhoods that were hardest hit by COVID-19.”

The “mega site” will offer 15,000 vaccine appointments in its first week, officials said.

Vaccination appointments are reserved only for Bronx residents who meet the currently state eligibility requirements.

It’s a step that avoids a repeat of what happened at a Washington Heights vaccination site, where mostly-white out-of-towners scooped up vaccination slots at a location specifically chosen to serve a neighborhood largely consisting of people of color.

Bronx residents who are eligible for the vaccine can make appointments Bronx residents by visiting Somosvaccinations.com or by calling 1-833-SomosNY.

They’re required to bring proof of Bronx residency to their appointments and can do so by showing one of the following:

• State or government-issued ID;
• Statement from landlord;
• Current rent receipt or lease;
• Mortgage records.

Residents can also bring two of the following to show residency:

• Statement from another person;
• Current mail;
• School records.

SOMOS, a network of community doctors, is helping administer the shots in the facility, which New York’s National Guard will run.