Yorktown Seeks State Approval to Open COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Center
With the County Center serving as the only COVID-19 vaccine distribution site in Westchester, Yorktown leaders are seeking approval to open a vaccination site in town to expedite the immunization process.
In a letter to state and county elected officials, Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater and Town Clerk Diana Quast maintained the town has several senior living facilities, nursing homes, veteran halls, pharmacists, firehouses, ambulance corps and town buildings that can be utilized to handle residents eligible to receive the vaccine.
Currently, health care workers, police, firefighters, other public safety workers, educators, transit workers and people 65 and up are eligible.
“We are prepared to facilitate any number of locations within our community to fulfill the needs and get as many people vaccinated as possible,” Slater and Quast stated in a January 15 letter. “Having locations from Yorktown to White Plains to Yorktown would provide perfect regional locations in lower, mid and upper Westchester County. Additionally, establishing a vaccine distribution center within centrally located Yorktown will eliminate the need for many seniors and elderly to find ways to travel in order to be vaccinated.”
Two proposed locations Slater and Quast mentioned in Yorktown were the Albert Capellini Community and Cultural Center gym and the Jefferson Village Senior Community Room.
They noted both locations were used as polling places during elections and were easily accessible for seniors with no stairs and ample parking. The Jefferson Village building, they added, was close to major roadways and could function as a multi-county center for Putnam and Dutchess as well. Putnam County currently has two distribution sites – one at the Carmel Friendship Center and the other at the Philipstown Recreation Center.
“Please consider this request with the utmost expediency so that we may begin preparing our facilities and move quickly to do our part in getting residents vaccinated,” they concluded.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
