Mobile County officials are preparing the Alabama Cruise Terminal ahead of the first major COVID-19 distribution effort off the coast of Alabama on Saturday.
Large-scale vaccination efforts in Mobile County come at the same time that Alabama officials are countering the bad public relations at the spread rate of the state’s abyss. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the state ranks last in the percentage of residents who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
The worst countries for vaccine distribution are in the deep south, with Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia not far behind Alabama.
The poor results prompted the Alabama government, Kay Ivey, on Friday afternoon to release a statement urging people to be patient, cover their faces and stand 6 meters apart.
Ivey’s comments also come so close that half of the states in the US are starting to increase the number of people receiving a vaccine to 65 years and older.
“I am grateful that many Alabamians are willing to take their COVID-19 vaccines,” she said. ‘(State Health Officer) Dr. (Scott) Harris and his team are constantly working to get this vaccine into the arms of Alabamians more effectively. Our current supply is still limited, but we are committed to vaccinating as many Alabamians as possible. ‘
Other statistics show that some groups of Alabamians plan to drop the vaccine. Only 50% of school workers in Tallapoosa and Marion provinces, who have already been vaccinated after hospitals in the area offered unused doses of vaccines, prefer to get them.
Mobile County, earlier this week, hosted a vaccination clinic for religious leaders in the area in an effort to convince the minority community to feel more comfortable getting the vaccine.
Mobile County Health Department spokesman Mark Bryant said a survey among residents shows that 65% of the Black community said they have no plans to take the vaccine.
The health agency provided details about the clinic during a Facebook update Friday before opening at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Dr. Rendi Murphree, director of the Mobile County Health Department’s Bureau of Surveillance and Environmental Studies, said people arriving at downtown terminals for a COVID-19 vaccine should be prepared to wait. She encouraged participants to bring water and snacks along and “be kind to our staff and everyone else in the same boat as you.”
The province administers 1,000 of the Moderna vaccine to people 75 years and older and to police and firefighters. The first doses are administered from 08:00 to 13:30 to everyone 75 years and older, on a first-come-first-served basis. From 13:30 to 20:00, the vaccinations will be open to police and firefighters who bring their identification.
The agency has been criticized in recent days for administering vaccines to people who are not eligible for the doses. Health officials have admitted in recent days that they accidentally handed out vaccines to people who were not eligible for them during a “soft opening” event at the airport terminal.
Murphree said the department learned a few lessons during clinics for appointments only that took place during the soft opening events. She said anyone vaccinated at the cruise terminal on Saturday would be sent home with a vaccination card containing the date of the vaccination and a date that is the earliest anyone can return for their second dose.
There is no residency requirement to receive a vaccine on Saturday, though Murphree said the department “prefers it to be Mobile County residents.” A similar vaccination clinic will take place on 19, 21, 26 and 28 January 09: 00-15: 00 in the Daphne Civic Center.
The clinic is not a drive-through event. She said that participants would enter the cruise terminal via Eslava Street and be led to the right place to park.
“Keep your identification ready in the car, and someone will contact you when you enter,” Murphree said. “You can expect delays.”