New Yorkers are rushing to sign up for late-night COVID-19 vaccination slots as the city ramps up efforts to get people inoculated against the virus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

Midnight-to-4 a.m. appointments at the two 24-hour vaccination sites the city has set up so far were quickly snapped up, de Blasio said at his daily coronavirus briefing.

“So you can see New Yorkers are going to take advantage of this,” the mayor said. “The city that never sleeps, people are immediately grabbing those opportunities to get vaccinated.”

More vaccination sites are being set up around the city, with the goal of administering 1 million doses this month, de Blasio said.

De Blasio said the city is speeding up vaccinations, with more than 160 sites now open. He said nearly 101,800 shots were administered last week, about as many as the total from mid-December when the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use through early January.

“We are now picking up the pace intensely,” he said.

Monday was the first day that people over 75 and essential workers — including police officers, firefighters and teachers — were allowed to receive the vaccines in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the new guidelines on Friday after a week of sparring between the Democratic governor and mayor over whether eligibility should be broadened beyond health care workers and nursing home residents and staffers.

New Yorkers who secured vaccine appointments at one city-run Brooklyn site said the process went smoothly.

David Garvin, who turns 80 on Saturday, emerged with a “very positive feeling” after his shot.

“It gives you hope,” he said. “I’ve been in my room for six months … It’s been very unpleasant, but I’ve had my books and my family, so I’m not all alone.”

Garvin said he and his family had been pleasantly surprised to call Sunday and get an appointment for him for Monday: “I’ve read so many horror stories” from elsewhere about long lines and short supply, he said, “but this is working out very good.”

Tessa Huxley said she felt “immensely relieved” as she wheeled her 95-year-old, newly vaccinated mother out of the Brooklyn site.

“We’re just thrilled,” she said.

Huxley’s mother has dementia and couldn’t handle the appointment process herself, so Huxley jumped on a website to book one Sunday and got through on the second try. The vaccination went smoothly, she said, and she hopes it will begin to end a long, frightening period of worrying for her mother and herself, 67.

“It’s been terrifying, because I take care of her regularly, so I just have to be even more careful,” Huxley said.

Now that eligibility has been expanded, de Blasio said the federal government and vaccine makers must send more doses to keep up with demand. He said the city has enough vaccine on hand to last into next week.

State officials also announced new vaccination sites on Monday, including one at the the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Manhattan facility that was used as a field hospital last spring, and one at Jones Beach on Long Island.

Vaccinations are available only by appointment at all of the sites.

(AP)