Norwalk partnering with movie theater for vaccine clinics

NORWALK — The city health department is partnering with Bow Tie Cinemas to host a biweekly COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the South Norwalk movie theater, with plans for the first clinic to take place next week, city spokesperson Josh Morgan said.

The agreement, which runs from April 1 to June 30, was approved in a special meeting of the Common Council Monday night, with Councilmember Diana Revolus abstaining from the vote.

Clinics are set to run each Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

at the Ultimate Regent 8 theater on North Main Street, according to the agreement. The partnership comes after Gov. Ned Lamont’s decision last week to extend COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to people 16 and older starting April 1.

“We’ve been following the state’s phases with whoever was eligible to be able to be vaccinated and thought it was really important, moving forward, we had a location in South Norwalk that would be accessible to members of the community,” Norwalk Health Department Director Deanna D’Amore said at Monday’s meeting.

With the new clinic site, the city will be able to administer about 500 vaccines in a six-hour period, D’Amore said. As of March 24, the city health department has administered 6,900 COVID-19 vaccines.

The idea to use the movie theater came about from a member of Mayor Harry Rilling’s COVID-19 task force while brainstorming venues large enough for the mass clinics, D’Amore said.

“We visited some of the city-owned sites in South Norwalk, and we felt like we wanted to be able to get a higher throughput and to offer a space where people could walk up, they could take transportation or they could drive and park,” she said.

The only cost the city will incur from the partnership is the approximately $400 weekly cleaning expense following the clinics, for which the city plans to request refunds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, D’Amore said.

Additionally, the city is working with LAZ Parking to cordon off a section of parking spots for free vaccine clinic use.

In organizing the clinics, the city plans to use its own vaccine registration system rather than the Vaccine Administration Management System set up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morgan said.

The vaccines clinic will be held in the theater’s lobby and entrance areas, not the theaters where customers view films, as the theater has yet to reopen following closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media The Regent 8 Theater on North Main Street. The city health department is partnering with Bow Tie Cinemas to host vaccine clinics at the South Norwalk movie theater.

Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Mallory Bates, an RN at Norwalk Hospital, left, administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Salvatore Rigillo during a Norwalk Health Department mass vaccination clinic for people 45 years and older at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk on March 20.