Mega COVID-19 Vaccination Site At Texas Motor Speedway Reopens Thursday
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Denton County's mega vaccination site at Texas Motor Speedway will be back open Thursday, Feb. 4.
"We're building on our success of yesterday as we prepare for Thursday and Friday of this week," said Denton County Judge Andy Eads.
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, the first day operating the massive drive-thru clinic, the county was able to get through about a thousand cars an hour. Some 9,100 people received shots.
After closing Wednesday, Feb. 3, to evaluate how things went, the site is reopening Thursday by appointment only.
"We encourage everybody to stick to their appointment times," said Judge Eads. "Of anything negative yesterday, I'd say we had a lot of early birds so it made the line a little bit longer, but not really that much longer than typical."
The goal is to vaccinate 30,000 people by the end of the week.
"I think people realize Denton County can deliver this vaccine in a timely manner, and that's why we had people coming from really all over America to get this vaccination," Judge Eads said.
While Denton County has been praised for its efficiency, other clinics have been plagued by problems.
A computer glitch caused some traffic gridlock and delayed appointments at a vaccine site in Arlington today.
In Dallas, people waited up to six hours in line on Saturday to get vaccinated at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
The city says people sharing their appointment links with other played a big part in the back-up.
"Our QR system has really prevented people from sharing that and duplicating the registration system," said Eads.
Denton County also credits the more than 400 people from a variety of county departments and city agencies working on site to make sure their drive-thru model runs smoothly.
"So it takes a village, all across the county, and it takes a big footprint, so the partnership with TMS is again something we can't replicate anywhere else we believe," Denton County Public Health Director Dr. Matt Richardson said.
To keep the operation going, Denton County needs even more volunteers to help at the drive thru clinic.
The county hopes to get even more vaccines from the state to distribute at Texas Motor Speedway again next week.
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