You are reading

Elmhurst Hospital Becomes First NYC Public Hospital to Vaccinate Staff

Elmhurst Hospital employee William Kelly is vaccinated for COVID-19 (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Dec. 16, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Elmhurst Hospital — once seen as the epicenter of the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. — became the first public city hospital to administer the vaccine in the five boroughs.

The hospital was the scene of a photo-op Wednesday as two staff members were vaccinated in front of elected officials and members of the media.

The occasion was quite a different picture than at the height of the pandemic — when images of body bags being loaded onto trucks from Elmhurst Hospital made national news. The hospital saw 13 patients die of coronavirus within a 24-hour period in mid March.

One of the staffers vaccinated Wednesday, Veronica Delgado, a lead physician’s assistant in the Emergency Department, compared the moment to “that first bit of sunlight in the morning after a very long, dark and frightening night.”

Delgado and William Kelly, a service aide in the Environmental Services Department, were the first staff members to receive the vaccine within the city’s 11 public hospitals. On Monday, a Queens nurse at a private hospital became the first American to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

The two Elmhurst Hospital employees are among the more than 1,600 health care workers vaccinated for COVID-19 in the city since Monday.

Elmhurst Hospital workers celebrate the first COVID-19 vaccinations of two staff members (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

All staff members at Elmhurst Hospital are expected to be vaccinated in the next three weeks, the head of the city’s public hospital system, Dr. Mitch Katz, said.

“How great that we can be here to make the pain go away, to be able to protect the heroes of Elmhurst,” Katz said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said there was no more fitting place to administer the vaccine than Elmhurst Hospital.

“We’re celebrating such an important moment here — the first ever vaccination at a New York City public hospital,” he said. “And there’s no more fitting place than here. This is the place where it should be because this is the heroic place.”

The testing line outside Elmhurst Hospital in April (Photo: Queens Post)

email the author: news@queenspost.com

One Comment

Click for Comments 
Silvi Werner

Congratulations heroes !
You all are going beyond the call to duty !
We love you and pray for you daily.

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Fall fun in western Queens: Your guide to the best seasonal events

Aug. 29, 2025 By Jessica Militello

With beach days and summer BBQs behind us, the start of September rings in the start of magnificent Fall foliage, Halloween and more fun activities that come with the start of Autumn, including a list of Fall events in the area. From apple picking to seasonal ciders and more, there is tons to explore in the community. From Mystic Markets to scary movie meet-ups and more, here is a list of Fall events you do not want to miss.

Fresh Meadows MS-13 gang associate sentenced to nearly a half-century in prison for murder of Corona teen in Kissena Park: Feds

An MS-13 gang associate from Fresh Meadows was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison on Tuesday, Aug. 26, for the 2018 slaying of a Corona teenager in Flushing’s Kissena Park.

Juan Amaya-Ramirez, 27, and his co-defendant Oscar Flores-Mejia, 25, from Elmhurst, who is also an associate of the transnational criminal organization, pleaded guilty to the murder of 17-year-old Andy Peralta in Brooklyn federal court last September.

AG’s office launches investigation into death of man run over by police officer in Flushing Meadows Corona Park

The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) has launched a probe into the death of a civilian on Saturday, Aug. 23, following a motor vehicle collision involving NYPD officers in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

At approximately 4:37 p.m., an NYPD officer from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst was driving westbound in a marked police cruiser, a 2015 Ford Taurus, at around 10 miles per hour in front of the Queens Theater on United Nations Avenue South, across from the Unisphere, when the vehicle ran over a man who was allegedly lying face up on the roadway prior to the collision, police said.