GET YOUR JABS AT TIMES SQ.
Subway station popup vaxxin’ thru New Year
A pop-up at the Times Square subway station gave commuters a unique gift on Christmas Eve: COVID-19 vaccines.
It’s one of several vaccination sites the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to set up in the subways as the omicron variant continues to bring record numbers of COVID cases.
The vaccines are free — just the $2.75 cost of subway admission, a small price to pay to avoid long lines at some of the city’s other vaccination sites.
“It’s very convenient,” said Wilson Yu, 31, who got his booster shot at Times Square on Friday. He commutes from Rego Park, Queens, to Manhattan each day for his job as a data processor.
“I hate waiting outside in the cold on a long line. I only waited five minutes here,” he said. “I feel safe because I wear my mask all the time, no matter what. But I’m still coming into the office and want the booster.”
The MTA this week also began offering shots at the Roosevelt Ave.-74th St. subway station in Jackson Heights, Queens — and will begin offering booster shots at Grand Central Terminal starting Monday.
Only the Times Square site was open Christmas Eve.
“It feels weird that it doesn’t feel so Christmasy because of the
pandemic,” said Coney Island resident Alex Cordero, 48, who got his first vaccine at the station
Cordero said he got the shot because starting Monday, his Upper East Side electrician job will require vaccinations.
“I was a little iffy myself because of what I believed in,” he said. “But I have to get it. It’s a part of New York. Everyone should be safe.”
The Times Square location
gave about 200 shots Thursday and was on pace to dole out more than 100 Friday, said MTA supervisors at the site. The popup, which will be closed Christmas Day, will offer vaccines from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day afterward at least until year’s end.
Heavily demanded PCR COVID-19 tests will also be offered at Times Square and at the Grand Central subway stop starting Monday — and supervisors said they’re set for the long lines. Times Square and Grand Central are the two busiest subway stations in the city, their turnstiles clocking a combined 350,000 swipes per weekday before the pandemic.
The convenient shots are available for all, regardless of immigration status. They are even available for tourists, as Pamela Mendoza and Emanuel Santamaria — visitors from Costa Rica — found out when they spent Christmas Eve afternoon getting their boosters at Times Square.
“It’s hard to get the boosters in Costa Rica because they’re only available for the elderly,” said Mendoza, 28. “We thought, ‘Why not just do it here?’ ”
After the couple got their shots, they headed to Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, to gawk at the neighborhood’s famous Christmas lights. They expected to spend Christmas Day wrangling a bit with the side effects from the vaccines, but still planned to make the most of a vacation that’s been upended by the pandemic.
The Times Square shot site is in the station’s mezzanine between the 42nd St. shuttle and the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 platforms.
It’s set up just feet away from where subway buskers usually perform, and one bit of entertainment Friday was a sign of the times: A man salsa dancing with a skeleton dressed in women’s clothing.