NEW YORK — Yankee Stadium opened as a COVID-19 vaccination site Friday, drawing lines of people from surrounding neighborhoods in the Bronx. 

The mega-site is being restricted to Bronx residents as a way to boost vaccination rates in the New York City borough with the highest percentage of positive coronavirus test results. The Yankees' home opened for appointments for vaccination-eligible residents early Friday under damp skies. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio called it "a different kind of opening day" and said the stadium site was set up to help people unable to get appointments previously.

"We really want to make sure that this is for the people of the Bronx. This is for folks who have been hit very hard by COVID," de Blasio said on WNYC.

The site run jointly by the city and state will be able to handle 15,000 people during its first week, officials said. It will be open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Plans to provide COVID-19 inoculations at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, the New York Mets' home in Queens, were delayed by a lack of sufficient vaccine supply. 

No opening day for vaccinations at Citi Field has been announced.