Rockland Coronavirus: State Opens Mass Vaccination Site At RCC

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — New York state officials are lowering the eligibility age and opening yet another mass vaccination site: this one in Rockland County.

It will start operations Thursday at Rockland Community College, with appointments at the field house from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.

Registration for appointments at RCC will begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

It's a sweet victory for county officials, who have been asking for a permanent site for a couple of months — finally going so far as to ask their state lawmakers to vote against every piece of legislation the Cuomo administration wanted. County Executive Ed Day acknowledged it was "political hardball."

Monday, Day said the opening of Rockland Community College as a mass vaccination site would have an immediate impact on the county.

Currently Rockland has a coronavirus positivity rate of 5.4 percent, above the statewide average of 4.1 percent.

"I appreciate all of our residents and the local elected officials who spoke out in support of our efforts of opening a mass vaccination site and I thank the Governor and his staff for listening to our concerns and stepping up to help protect the people of Rockland," Day said. "I encourage Rocklanders to take advantage of this opportunity to get vaccinated right here in their home county; we spent months fighting for this site and now we must put it to use."

This will be the state's 24th mass vaccination site. The state is also running joint state-FEMA community-based vaccination sites, the Yankee Stadium mass vaccination site, and more than 120 community-based pop-up sites in public housing developments, churches and community centers. That's in addition to the "retail" vaccination network of hospitals, pharmacies and medical clinics.

The site arrives after intense lobbying and even introducing legislation to make it happen, said state Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, (D-Rockland/Westchester).

"This long-overdue decision will have a tremendous positive impact on ensuring equal access to the COVID vaccine for Rockland residents," he said.

As of Monday, 51,752 Rockland residents have completed the vaccine series and 93,279 have at least one dose.

On Tuesday, residents age 30 and older will be able to be vaccinated, and eligibility will expand even farther April 6 to New Yorkers aged 16 and up.

The announcement came one week after Rockland County legislators, along with more than 100 locally-elected village, town and county officials, banded together to implore Cuomo to promptly open a mass vaccination site in Rockland.

“We said from the start that it was incumbent upon all of us to do whatever we can to quickly end the fear and uncertainty by speeding up the process by which the greatest number of people can receive the vaccination in as short a time as possible,” Rockland County Legislature Chairman Alden H. Wolfe said. “I have no doubt that this will greatly contribute to that goal.”

The letter was signed by all 17 Rockland County Legislators, County Executive Ed Day, County Sheriff Louis Falco III, County Clerk Donna Gorman-Silberman and village and town boards members in Clarkstown, Haverstraw, Orangetown, Ramapo, Stony Point, Airmont, Chestnut Ridge, Grand View-on-Hudson, Haverstraw village, Montebello, New Hempstead, Nyack, Piermont, Pomona, Sloatsburg, Spring Valley, South Nyack, Upper Nyack, Wesley Hills, and West Haverstraw.

In his announcement, the governor said the site was possible due to an increase in vaccine supply from federal partners.

Eligible New Yorkers can schedule appointments by using New York's 'Am I Eligible' website or by calling the state's COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829).

Hudson Valley residents can also find vaccination sites using an interactive map created by WMCHealth. SEE: HV Coronavirus: Help For Finding Vaccine Appointments.