Vaccine bus rolls into New York's Sunset Park

[April 08, 2021]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Emblazoned with the outline of a masked Statue of Liberty flexing a formidable bicep, the first COVID-19 mobile vaccine clinics rolled into New York City on Wednesday to make vaccinations more easily available for underserved communities.

The first buses set up in the Sunset Park community in Brooklyn, home to Chinatown, and residents lined up around the corner for a vaccination appointment.

"This is an approach that's really going to help us reach a lot of people who are being missed so far," New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a news conference on Tuesday to announce the initiative.

"This will take the vaccinations right to them."

The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be offered at the mobile clinic, which can accommodate up to six people at a time. The program aims to vaccinate about 200 people a day.

A man wearing a protective face mask walks by a woman working with registration for people receiving the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a NYC mobile vaccine bus in the Sunset Park section of the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., April 7, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Restaurant workers and restaurant delivery workers, many of whom are undocumented, will be among the first to be offered the vaccine, with vaccine information offered in 12 languages.

The buses will remain in Sunset Park through Friday, then go to other neighborhoods.

(Reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Karishma Singh and Himani Sarkar)

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