State-run mass vaccination site to open in Orange County

The mass vaccination site that will sit there permanently could give up to 5,000 jabs in the arm a day.

News 12 Staff

Mar 9, 2021, 3:17 AM

Updated 1,368 days ago

Share:

In just a few weeks, SUNY Orange in Middletown will be bustling with people who are waiting for a shot at getting their lives back to normal.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that 10 additional state-run mass vaccination sites will open in the coming weeks, including at the campus.
The mass vaccination site that will sit there permanently could give up to 5,000 jabs in the arm a day.
"It's emotional for people, we're vaccinating people that've lost husbands, lost moms, lost kids, so when they get in there, they feel like they have been liberated," says Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus.
A few weeks ago, Orange County was listed as receiving one of the lowest numbers of vaccines in the whole state.
"You have big vax sites up north, big vax sites down south, and we're kind of in this forgotten land," said Neuhaus.
So the state finally gave the county the mass vaccination site it had been advocating so long for.
Currently, the county-run site in Goshen can administer about 2,000 doses a day.
"It'll allow the smaller health care providers and even the county to target people with special needs, with mobility issues, maybe they can't leave a group home," he says.
The only other two mass sites in the Hudson Valley are in Yonkers and White Plains in Westchester.
Having a site in their own backyard will help elderly residents and people with disabilities who can't necessarily drive long distances.
The site is expected to open in a few weeks. Details about appointments will be coming out soon.