UCHealth plans to hold an ongoing mass vaccination event at Coors Field’s car parks at the end of January, with the forecast that 10,000 people aged 70 or older will be vaccinated against COVID-19 over two days, health officials said on Friday. said.
Before UCH concludes the January 30-31 convention in Denver – held in partnership with city and state officials and the Colorado Rockies – UCHealth will hold a dry run on Sunday at the same venue with plans to include 1,000 older Colorado dancers in appointments. .
“No boardings will be vaccinated these days,” said Dan Weaver, vice president of communications for UCHealth. “In fact, if a car with several people driving in, we can only vaccinate one person with an appointment.”
Coloreds seeking UVealth COVID-19 vaccines can register for appointments through the provider’s website or by calling 720-462-2255; those who qualify under the current vaccination phase of the state – such as people aged 70 and older – will be notified when appointments are available, either at the doorstep or elsewhere.
The Sunday pilot event will begin slowly, with a small number of cars being brought through Coors Field’s parking lots between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. before the crew takes a breather to find out what works, which needs to be adjusted, Weaver said. At 10:00, a larger number of cars – all people with appointments – will be let through, and by noon, 1,000 people aged 70 and older are expected to be vaccinated.
After people are vaccinated, there is a required period of 15 minutes to pay attention to adverse reactions to the injections, so that vehicles are directed to another parking lot, Weaver said. There will be observers and EMS crew walking around and monitoring those who have just received their shots.
“We are certainly optimistic that if the pilot of this weekend goes well, we can hold the two-day vaccination through clinic next weekend,” Weaver said.
Staff from other healthcare providers will also be on hand to take note, with the idea that UCHealth’s two-day event could be used as a blueprint to set up other door-to-door vaccination clinics across the state, Weaver said. The state will provide UCHealth with extra doses of COVID-19 vaccines so that the health system can vaccinate up to 10,000 people next weekend, he noted.
UCHealth’s plans come as the Biden government, which wants to speed up the distribution of vaccines, announces a plan that will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to run up to 100 mass vaccination clinics across the country, reports The Washington Post.
Government Jared Polis has previously shied away from the kind of large-scale vaccination clinics being set up in other states, saying he believes smaller sites are just as effective. On Friday, however, he said he had excluded “sites of no size”.
“Every website has a role to play,” Polis said at a news conference. ‘Whether it’s a Coors Field site managed by UCHealth, or whether it’s a FEMA site. We like to work with all partners on these types of sites. ”
But, he said, one problem with massive vaccination sites is that there are still a very limited amount of COVID-19 vaccines.
“If you have just that much vaccine, I think it’s very important to get it in the community throughout our state rather than in one place,” Polis said. “That said, in the population centers, if you have a critical mass, you can definitely have a medium-scale website or even a larger scale as part of the general model.”