Appointments full as drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine clinic begins at NRG Park
HOUSTON - Texas has now recorded more than 2 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic first started. As the numbers continue to grow locally and nationally, so has demand for the vaccine.
On Thursday morning, those with appointments began gathering in a parking lot of NRG Park to receive their COVID-19 vaccine.
Memorial Hermann teamed up with NRG Park to make this happen. The clinic starts Thursday and will last until Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
About 13,000 people are expected to go there to get their vaccinations over the next four days.
Unfortunately, no more spots are available. We are told that within three hours, appointments were filled. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
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Memorial Hermann announces vaccine drive-thru clinic at NRG Park
According to a release, the clinic will be available only to pre-registered individuals and will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14 through Sunday, Jan. 17.
You will see scenes similar to this across the country as other states are using places like football stadiums, ball parks and fairgrounds to speed up the distribution process and hopefully alleviate long lines.
Medical experts are aware that the demand for vaccines are high, and that they are doing everything they can to get the vaccines distributed once they are available.
"This is an event that we were able to put together with our partnership with NRG and Houston Rodeo to try to get 13,000 people vaccinated over the next four days through a drive-thru event. We’ll be repeating this with those same people in four weeks so they get their second dose," says Dr. James McCarthy, Chief Physician Executive with Memorial Hermann Health System. "We think this is the beginning of a number of large scale community events that we and others in the vaccine kind of distribution phase will be looking forward to doing and providing. I would emphasize, right, that this is something that everybody wants. Lots of people want this vaccine, and it’s going to take us a while to get to everybody. But we’re moving as ambitiously and as diligently as we can."
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The Texas Department of State Health Services wants the public to know how they can sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine. You can sign up with a vaccination hub and can find the one closest to you on the DSHS website. You can also sign up with a vaccine provider in your community, like a pharmacy, to see if they have any doses available.
Right now, only those who are frontline healthcare workers, those who are 65 and older, or those 16 and older with a serious medical condition are allowed to be vaccinated.