Thursday, October 1, 2026
Aug. 3 began Nassau’s new traveling vaccination program. Businesses in Nassau County can set up appointments for Department of Health workers to administer free coronavirus vaccines to their employees on site.
County Executive Laura Curran and other officials gathered outside of Cafe Baci in Westbury last Wednesday to launch the new program. Restaurants employees received the first shots from the program. All sized businesses, restaurants, shops and others are eligible for this new initiative.
“Nassau County continues to lead the way in vaccinations in New York state and the nation, but we are committed to keep up the pace and offer new initiatives to get shots into arms,” Curran said. “This new onsite vaccination program will bring the vaccine directly to places of employment in hopes to further increase our vaccination rates and protect our residents, and the progress we have made, from Covid-19.”
The county will administer doses of the Moderna vaccine to employees 18 and older.
Businesses are not mandated to require their employees and patrons to be vaccinated. It is up to the owners, Curran and Nassau County Health Commissioner Lawrence Einstein said.
“I believe business owners can [make] this decision for themselves,” Curran said.
At the conference, Curran said that more than 82 percent of adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine in Nassau. She emphasized that the new program is part of the county’s goal to have all residents vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Nassau is the highest vaccinated county on Long Island.
“The best way to protect yourself, to protect your family, to protect our economy, our businesses is to get vaccinated,” Curran said.
Eisenstein spoke of the importance of being vaccinated. Receiving it not only will help prevent Covid-19, but also will reduce symptoms if one is infected. Getting more people vaccinated is the key to stopping the spread of the disease, he said.
There are different reasons that people have hesitated to be vaccinated, he said, but in all groups, the vaccine will save someone’s life.
“People who are vaccinated are not dying, and those who are dying are not vaccinated,” he said. “Without the vaccine, you’re much more likely to catch it and get sick.” There’s new data coming out that hesitant groups can look at to answer any questions they have, he said.
“The more people that are vaccinated, the less disease there will be,” he said. “We’re going to do everything we can to get people to understand how important getting vaccinated is.”
Cafe Baci Manager Andy Sausmer said the county reached out to him to host this news conference a week before it took place. “It was a no-brainer to host this press conference,” Sausmer said. “We want to do what we can to do our part as reliable business people and good citizens.”
“The county made it so easy,” he said, adding that he had employees who had wanted to get the vaccine, but didn’t know where to, so he was excited to provide this service for them.
The delta variant of the coronavirus is highly contagious and is now spreading among the unvaccinated. “As we see, the fight against coronavirus is not over,” Curran said. “The delta variant is significantly more infections than other variants of this virus, and it is driving an uptick in new cases.”
“There are always breakthroughs,” those who become ill despite being vaccinated, Eisenstein said. “What will happen in the future, we don’t know. We think the protection with the vaccine is about eight months, if not longer.”
Businesses owners can call (516)-227-9570 to schedule an appointment.
