Nassau County will open a new Covid-19 vaccination center at LIU Post in Brookville, County Executive Laura Curran announced Wednesday.
The vaccination site has a soft launch planned for Friday and will open fully next week, county officials said. The county’s health department will manage the point of distribution (POD), and LIU Post School of Health Professions and Nursing students and faculty will administer the shots.
“This partnership will allow the county to use not just the space but the skill of the students, the teachers, and the faculty to administer the doses,” Curran said.
“It is an exceptional learning experience for students to learn about the humanitarian efforts that are going on globally,” said Dr. Denise Walsh, dean of the LIU School of Health Professions and Nursing. “And to also participate in caring for the community in which we reside, so we’re very excited for the opportunity to open this POD.”
This is the third county-run site to open in Nassau. The others are at Nassau Community College in Uniondale and Yes We Can Community Center in Westbury. When appointments become available at these sites, residents can register at nassaucountyny.gov/vaccine.
The new vaccine center will focus on residents in phase 1B of New York’s vaccination program. This includes police officers, firefighters, teachers and all school staff, grocery store workers, transit workers, taxi drivers, and restaurant workers. Starting Monday, Feb. 15, it also includes people with certain pre-existing health conditions.
“This is opening up more eligibility. The supply is not opening up that much,” Curran said, “but we want to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place to accommodate the eligibility as supply does open up. Having this POD here at LIU will help us with that.”
County officials, including Dr. Larry Eisenstein, the county health commissioner, said they recognize the frustration residents are feeling about the limited number of vaccine appointments, even when new sites open up. However, Eisenstein said he’s hopeful that supply of the vaccine will increase soon, and that the county is working on new registration systems.
“We’re putting a new mechanism in place that I think you’ll be hearing about in the next few days that will streamline all this,” he said, “and hopefully eliminate some of the frustration.”
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