U.S. dispensing shots at stadiums, fairgrounds
States trying to speed up the process amid dire COVID numbers
The U.S. is entering the second month of the biggest vaccination drive in history with a major expansion of the campaign, opening football stadiums, major league ballparks, fairgrounds and convention centers to inoculate a larger and more diverse pool of people.
After a frustratingly slow rollout involving primarily health care workers and nursing home residents, states are moving on to the next phase before the first one is complete, making COVID-19 shots available to such groups as senior citizens, teachers, bus drivers, police officers and firefighters.
Emily Alexander, a fourthgrade teacher in hard-hit Arizona, got vaccinated in a round-theclock, drive-thru operation that opened Monday at the suburban Phoenix stadium where the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals play. She said she hopes it means she canbe reunited in person with her students and colleagues before the end of the year.
“I miss the kids so much,” the 37-year-old Alexander said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing them and their families, being able to hug them. That has just been so tough.”
Similarly, in Britain, where a more contagious variant of the virus is raging out of control and deaths are soaring, seven largescale vaccination sites opened Monday at such places as a big convention center in London, a racecourse in Surrey and a tennis and soccer complex in Manchester
Across the U.S., where the outbreak has entered its most lethal phase yet and the death toll has climbed to about 375,000, politicians and health officials have complained over the past several days that too many shots were sitting unused on the shelves because of overly rigid adherence to the federal guidelines that put an estimated 24 million health care workers and nursing home residents at the front of the line.
About 9 million Americans have received their first shot, or 2.7 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts say as much as 85percent of the population will have to be inoculated to achieve “herd immunity” and vanquish the outbreak.
President-elect Joe Biden received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, three weeks after getting his first one with television cameras rolling in an attempt to reassure the American public that the inoculations are safe.
Biden took off his sport jacket and said, “Ready, set, go.” Chief Nurse Executive Ric Cumin administered the Pfizer vaccine at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., close to the president-elect’s home.
Biden got his first shot on Dec. 21. The virus has now killed more than 375,000 people in the United States — about 60,000 more than when the president-elect got his first round of vaccination — and continues to upend life around the globe.
In comments to reporters after his shot, Biden said he has confidence in his COVID-19 medical team to hit ambitious vaccination rate targets after he takes office on Jan. 20. He also called the current rate of thousands of people dying daily because of the pandemic “beyond the pale.”
“The No. 1 priority is getting vaccines in people’s arms as rapidly as we can,” Biden said.
Many states. are responding by throwing open the line to other groups and ramping up the pace of vaccinations, in some cases offering them 24-7.
In California, one of the deadliest hot spots in the U.S., a drivethru vaccination center was set up outside the San Diego Padres’ ballpark, with plans to inoculate 5,000 health care workers a day. Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles will also be pressed into service by the end of the week.
About 584,000 doses have been administered in California, or about 1.5 percent of the population. At the same time, the state hit another gloomy milestone, surpassing a death toll of 30,000. It took the state six months to record its first 10,000 deaths but barely a month to go from20,000 to 30,000.
Arizona, with the highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate in the U.S., is offering vaccinations to people 75 and older, teachers, police and firefighters.
In Texas, vaccine megasites opened at the Alamodome in San Antonio and at the state fairground in Dallas. Nearly 4,000 people were vaccinated Saturday at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Detroit’s call center was jammed with more than 100,000 calls Monday as the city took appointments for vaccinations at the city’s TCF convention center, starting Wednesday. Officials plan to schedule 20,000 appointments over the next month for elderly people. Police officers and bus drivers can start getting shots there at the end of the week.
The slow rollout has been blamed in part on inadequate funding and guidance from Washington and a multitude of logistical hurdles at the state and local level that have caused confusion and disorganization.
Florida, the longtime retirement haven with one of the biggest concentrations of elderly people in the country, is using Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens to dispense shots. A little over 402,000 doses have been administered in Florida since mid-December, or just under 2 percent of its population.
Rather than wait for the first designated group of recipients under the federal guidelines to get their shots, Gov. Ron DeSantis has opened vaccinations to people 65 and over.