Single-dose vaccine may be deployed by today
Santa Fe High vaccination site to move to Desert Sage Academy to improve accessibility for those with mobility issues
Dozens of elderly people trudged up the stairs or were wheeled up a ramp for their coronavirus vaccinations Tuesday on the top level of the Santa Fe High School gym.
About 600 people a day receive their vaccinations there — one of many sites in New Mexico and nationwide where the battle against the pandemic is being fought.
But sitting atop Santa Fe High’s hilltop campus, Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium may not be an ideal spot for the clinic. That vaccination center will soon be moved to Desert Sage Academy in Santa Fe as the state Department of Health, New Mexico Army National Guard and New Mexico Air National Guard tweak the arrangement to
make the setup more accessible, said Nick Boukas, northeast region director for the Health Department.
New Mexico got more good news Tuesday in its battle against the pandemic, with about 17,000 of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine arriving in the state Tuesday and expected to be deployed as early as Wednesday. Also, department spokesman David Morgan said the state is tied with Alaska for the highest rate of people who have gotten at least one shot, at 23 percent. For the second dose, New Mexico’s 12 percent is second to Alaska.
The effort at Santa Fe High, where the two-dose Pfizer vaccine has been administered, has received mixed reviews. Consuelo Constantine said she took her 93-year-old mother, Stella L. Martinez, to the school to get a shot there last week and saw people “struggling” to get up the stairs and ramp on the campus, she said.
“I waited for the wheelchair because there was no way she [Martinez] would’ve made it” up the stairs, Constantine said.
Boukas said the move to Desert Sage will take place in a week, adding the Health Department wants to provide easier access than at Santa Fe High.
“We recognize that there are some physical limitations with this facility,” he said. “We know it’s not perfect.”
Twenty-two people worked at the site Tuesday. Eleven worked for the Health Department and 11 women and men were part of the New Mexico National Guard. A bit before noon, National Guardsmen used two wheelchairs to help some of the people reach the clinic. Boukas said when the clinic opens for the day at 9 a.m., a line of people is frequently waiting.
By late morning, though, the system appeared fairly smooth. Qualified guardsmen and health officials administered the shots. There was a special area near the front for people with mobility problems.
Albert Handell came out of the gym and said he was satisfied.
“A snap. It was painless, easy, nothing,” Handell said. “Well organized, no problem.”
Constantine, however, said she found the clinic disorderly last week. She said people in the section for mobility problems were “trying to figure out who’s next.” They sat too close to one another, she said, and didn’t have easy access to hand sanitizer.
“I’m just worried about the elderly people,” she said.
On Tuesday there was hand sanitizer, although in the low-mobility section it was at least 10 feet from where people sat. They had easy access to it when the shot was administered, but not necessarily before or after. The Health Department laid out dots on the floor to stress the need for 6 feet of distance.
Theresa Garcia, 70, brought a neighbor in her late 70s for her vaccination. Garcia said the service was fast and “really good.”
“I wish they would’ve had a drive-thru thing, because she can’t walk,” Garcia said of her neighbor, who went up the ramp with a caretaker pushing a wheelchair.
National Guard Major Jake Fuller said there can be long lines early, but he said the facility is fine.
“I’m just proud that we’re serving the citizens of New Mexico,” Fuller said. He added, though, “the stairs are quite steep” for some people.
Boukas said “a few folks” have complained about the gym site, but many have commended the staffers. For the most part, he added, recipients of the shot are pleased and even emotional about receiving protection against the disease. A woman brought in coffee, cookies and juice boxes Tuesday, he said.
He also said a drive-thru clinic is much harder to monitor, in part due to a 15- to 30-minute waiting period after getting the shot.
In an interview Tuesday with the Washington Post, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state has rolled out its vaccination equity program so minorities and low-income people aren’t left behind in the distribution.
The state will use ZIP code analysis and U.S. Census data to create a “vulnerability index” designed to provide better access to people who sometimes struggle for health care, and 25 percent of available vaccine would be “taken off the top” to serve those found to be vulnerable in socioeconomic status and race.
“This is a state that has to get the equity distribution right,” Lujan Grisham said, noting New Mexico’s high percentage of minority residents. “We’re going to save more New Mexico lives and keep more people out of New Mexico hospitals.”