Dallas Expecting Thousands At Convention Center Vaccination Site Over Next 3 Days
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The city of Dallas will open its large vaccine hub at the convention center for the public on Thursday, and vaccination recipients are already being selected.
"As we speak, five thousand emails, phone calls and text messages are going out, inviting people to schedule, starting at 10 a.m. for their vaccination," Rocky Vaz, director of Dallas Emergency Management, said.
The city outlined its three-day operation of vaccinating about 200 people an hour inside a parking garage at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The city received 5,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
The city joins a list of other large-scale vaccination sites operating in parking lots, hospital drive-thrus and the mega hub at Fair Park.
But the Downtown Dallas site will not be exclusive to Dallas residents.
City officials confirmed their hub will provide shots to people over the age of 65 who are already registered by Dallas County. As of Wednesday, 416,000 people are on that registration list, regardless of their residency.
"We are expected to vaccinate any Texan who is on the waiting list, so any Texan can register in the hub site," Vaz said.
For the past month, calls to increase vaccines for Dallas' Latino and African-American communities have gotten louder. There are registration campaigns slated for the south and west areas of Dallas on Thursday to get more minority residents in line.
But the line for Dallas is already packed. The city hopes to get word of another vaccine shipment by the weekend.
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