(Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)
By Hanna Park
(NEW YORK) Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the American Museum of Natural History will be turned into a COVID-19 vaccination site that New Yorkers can get vaccinated in starting Friday.
“This is an exciting new effort, and I guarantee you that a lot of people are going to say ‘that’s where I want to get vaccinated,'” said de Blasio, per AM New York Metro.
New Yorkers can get the shot underneath the museum’s iconic blue whale model.
“The more sites, the better. The more sites, the more comfortable people get,” said de Blasio, explaining the motive behind transforming the city’s cultural institution into a vaccination site.
While all New Yorkers are eligible to get vaccinated at the site, public housing residents, cultural workers, members of the union DC37, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee members and museum staff will be given priority, de Blasio said.
The city reports over 5.7 million residents have received at least one shot of a vaccine as of Monday.
“I really can imagine this, we’ll look at images of New Yorkers getting vaccinated under the whale, and it will be a snapshot of New York and New Yorkers fighting back, caring for themselves, caring for one another, and of the time when things started to turn for the better,” said Ellen Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History.
The over 150-year-old institution located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side closed for six months last year due to the pandemic. It reopened its doors to the general public at a reduced capacity and with mask-wearing requirements for visitors last September.
New Yorkers can schedule a vaccination appointment at NYC.Gov/VaccineFinder or call 877-VAX-4NYC.