Alamodome is set to become vaccination venue
The city will transform the Alamodome into a nocost mass COVID-19 vaccination site, inoculating about 1,500 people a day in a concerted effort to turn the tide of a devastating epidemic that has infected nearly 130,000 San Antonians and killed about 1,600.
Overall, providers in Bexar County expect to receive about 20,000 doses of vaccine Monday — a relatively paltry amount that officials hope will increase in the coming weeks to eventually serve a population of about 2 million.
Of that, the city expects to receive about 9,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for use at the Alamodome next week. Bexar County’s University Health System is sharing those doses with the city.
University Health opened the first no-cost mass COVID-19 vaccination site this week at the Wonderland of the Americas mall. The public hospital received about 17,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and has been dispensing about 1,500 doses a day.
So far, providers in Bexar County have received a total of about 70,000 doses of the two vaccines since mid-december, and administered nearly 46,000, the Texas Department of State Health Services reports.
“This is just the beginning,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “There will be more coming as we move along, as the vaccine becomes available to Walgreens and H-E-B, and to CVS and other providers. As that supply grows, we’re going to have even more geographical diversity.”
Wolff and other leaders, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg and state Sen. José Menéndez, gathered outside the massive arena Friday to urge residents to remain patient as the city joins other health providers in a vaccine rollout slowed by a limited supply.
“Our fight against the virus is not over,” Nirenberg said. “The COVID-19 vaccine is certainly a step forward in ending this pandemic, but we still must work together now to slow the spread until a majority of people in our community are vaccinated.”
Only residents in the statemandated phases 1A and 1B are eligible to receive vaccinations at this time.
Phase 1A populations include front-line health care workers and residents and staff at longterm-care facilities, while the second phase includes people 65 and older, as well as those 16 and older with chronic medical conditions that put them at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
Registration for the Alamodome site opens at 9 a.m. Saturday. To sign up, residents must call 311 and select option 8, or visit the website, covid19.sanantonio.gov/vaccine. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
A drive-thru option will be available for those unable to walk into the Alamodome. Those who receive a dose of the Pfizer vaccine must return 21 days later for a second dose.
“Once you start making those calls to get registered, please know that not everyone will get into this first category,” District 2 Councilwoman Jada AndrewsSullivan said. “But we are doing everything that we can within our power and with the resources that we are given to make sure that everyone receives this vaccine.”
Menéndez praised the city and county for working together to make sure people in underserved parts of San Antonio could access the vaccine.
“Wonderland mall is working well, but it’s not in the center of the city,” Menéndez said. “I’m so happy to be here a few steps from homes on our East Side, a few blocks from the beginning of the South Side and just across downtown from the West Side. We need to have a location that is easily accessible.”
On the East Side, 125 churches are educating residents about the importance of getting vaccinated, helping them sign up for the shots and planning to bus seniors who lack transportation to the Alamodome, state Rep. Barbara Gervin-hawkins said.
“At first, there was a lot of skepticism,” Gervin-hawkins said. “But I went to get my shot, and we’re promoting to people to let them know the critical nature of it. Plus, we’ve got the faith-based community involved.”
Dispersing mass vaccine sites across the city is critical because COVID-19 has disproportionately affected minorities, Menéndez said.
“The highest rates of COVID-19 are in communities of color,” he said. “The highest rates of fatalities have been in communities of color.”
Menéndez added, “This has to be a full-time effort on behalf of everyone. We are precariously low on available hospital rooms in this city. We cannot get to the state where they are in California, where ambulance drivers are making decisions between who goes to a hospital and who doesn’t.”
At the Alamodome, a combination of city employees and volunteers will work 12-hour shifts, Monday through Saturday, to vaccinate residents, Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger said.
“It is labor intensive,” Bridger said. “We’ve got it covered.”