Brookfield opens larger vaccination clinic
BROOKFIELD — The town’s new, larger clinic opened Tuesday at St. Joseph Catholic Academy, and officials said things are running quickly and smoothly.
The clinic moved from the senior center to the old school building to expand its vaccination capacity. The plan was to administer 130 Modera vaccinations Tuesday before ramping up to around 300 on Thursday.
“It’s going very, very well,” said First Selectman Steve Dunn, who visited the clinic early in the morning before people began to
show up for their shots. “Everyone is really happy that it’s in Brookfield.”
The clinic’s goal is to administer between 400 to
600 vaccinations a day, or
1,500 a week.
With the number of area
COVID-19 cases climbing over the past month, local officials are eager for residents to be vaccinated.
Brookfield COVID-19 weekly case counts have increased from 51 the week of March 14 to 79 the week of March 21, with a case rate of 54.6 per 100,000 residents.
A larger clinic in town puts more vaccines in more arms.
“It means that we’re getting towards the end of this pandemic, hopefully,” Dunn said. “We’re really looking forward to doing it for our Brookfield
residents.”
Dunn said the process has been quick, since people completed their paperwork through the Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) prior to the appointment.
“It’s not like some of the mass drive-ins,” he said of wait times seen at some of the larger clinics.
About half of the appointments for the next two weeks have been made by Brookfield residents, which Dunn said was good for the town.
Paralegal Jennifer Barabas, 37, received an automated message from the first selectman’s office about two weeks ago, and knew that appointments would be released at 7 p.m. on April 1.
“They went really fast,” she said.
But Barabas and her boyfriend had already signed up through VAMS and were ready to grab the convenient local appointments as they came online. Barabas secured a Thursday appointment around noon, and her boyfriend got one for Saturday.
Knowing that they were becoming eligible along with 1.3 million other residents over the age of 16 on April 1, Barabas said she was stressed about securing an appointment.
“We were worried that there wouldn’t be anything available at that time,” she said.
The town has 100 volunteers whose efforts will be split between the weekdays and weekends, Dunn said.
The clinic will operate on a rotating schedule,this week on Tuesday and
Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. as well as Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Next week, it will operate on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
So far, the clinic expects to have between five and 20 extra doses each day, which they plan to give to people who show up at the end of the day. This is a change from their previous policy, where clinic administrators would, on rare occasions, directly contact qualified individuals.
Now, the has told people they can come to the clinic at 5 p.m. on weedays and noon on Saturday to see if an extra dose is availaboe for them, Dunn said.
“No guarantees, but if we have enough doses that we can give somebody — a walk-in — a dose, we’ll do that.”