Onondaga County rolls out mass-vaccination clinic for COVID booster shots on Wednesday

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced that the county will offer a mass-vaccination clinic for booster shots of the Pfizer COVID vaccine on Wednesday at the Oncenter for those who are eligible for the jabs.

The shots will be offered from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through a partnership with Kinney Drugs.

The county’s website — ongov.net — will have a link where those eligible can register for the clinic, as will the Kinney Drugs website, McMahon said.

The county is planning a booster clinic for Thursday as well, but as McMahon pointed out, “We don’t know what demand is going to look like … if we don’t have a lot of participation for Wednesday, we’ll have limited hours on Thursday.”

Those eligible for booster shots include anyone 65 years of age and older, all long-term care residents, and people age 18-to-64 with underlying medical conditions. Those who work in certain jobs that put them at risk to the coronavirus are also eligible for the boosters. Those include education workers, first responders, manufacturing employees, and grocery store and food-service workers. They need to have had two previous doses of the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago.

In addition to the clinic, booster jabs will also be available at other area pharmacies that have been participating as a point of distribution, and the county plans to provide booster shots to area primary-care providers as well, the county executive said.