North Texas Counties To Transition To Smaller COVID-19 Vaccine Sites
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - North Texas counties are beginning the transition from mega sites, to micro sites, as the demand for vaccine doses continues to slow.
Fewer drive-through sites are likely, in favor of mobile clinics in neighborhoods, community centers, churches and eventually workplaces.
Large sites will likely not disappear entirely, but the attendance necessary to support sites that can serve thousands of people daily is no longer happening.
"Truly we're at a place where we have more vaccines than we have people willing to get it," said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley during a County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, April 20.
The new strategy is not expected to achieve the same vaccine volume that mass sites in Fort Worth, Arlington, Hurst and Denton County did over the first part of the year. Instead of thousands of people daily, it may only be in the hundreds.
"We want high volume clinics, absolutely," said Dr. Sylvia Trent-Adams with the UNT Health Science Center, which is helping coordinate vaccinations for Tarrant County. "But right now if we can get into a community that has high need, and get 100 people a day, or even 200 a week, we're pleased with that, because it means we're decreasing the circulation of the virus at some point."
As of Tuesday, 24% of Tarrant County had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Denton County is also expected to move away from the mass site strategy within the next month.
The final day of operations for the FEMA-supported site in Arlington was Monday.
However, some of the Department of Defense and FEMA staff may be staying in North Texas another month, providing staffing help at a large vaccine site in Hurst.
