CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Officials from the city of Corpus Christi and Nueces County will hold a joint press conference today at 11:30 a.m. to brief the public on the 4,000 doses of Modern Vaccination Schedule that will arrive Monday.
City health director Annette Rodriguez and other city leaders will appear at the press conference.
“This is an exciting day for Corpus Christi,” said Mayor Joe McComb. “But we’re going to advise people to have a great deal of patience.”
Officials said the vaccinations are expected to begin Monday afternoon at the Richard Borchard Center at the fair. 1213 Terry Shamsie Blvd. in Robstown.
Registration begins Sunday at 5pm on the Coronarivus website link here. Registration will continue until the number of registrations allocated for the next day is reached.
When a person goes through the registration process, he gets a QR code that is shown to officials at the time of vaccination. You are asked to take a photo of the code to bring it to the vaccination site. This is a unique code and can not be shared with others.
The vaccination process will target two groups: those over 65 and others 18 and older with chronic diseases such as cancer, COPD, diabetes, heart disease, sickle cell disease and pregnancies.
Judge Barbara Canales of Nueces County borrowed some references from ‘Field of Dreams’, a film she said was one of her favorites to describe the country’s plans to distribute the vaccine.
“If you build it, they will come,” Canales said. “And the reason we built the infrastructure is the same answer that Kevin Costner (” Field of Dreams “star) gave. To alleviate his pain. That’s the thing we do to alleviate our pain with COVID-19. relieved.”
Officials hope to be able to distribute 4,000 first-dose vaccines next week. This will then pave the way for additional doses from the state if depleted.
Canales said the Corpus Christi area has been designated a ‘megacite’, meaning it is meant to serve those interested in receiving the vaccine from outside the country.
“The sad truth is that our population is more at risk than others in the state,” Canales said. “We have 50 percent more of our population aged 65 and older than the rest of the state. It’s very compelling. We also have more uninsured people and more with an average income lower than the rest of the state.”
Only 500 doses of the vaccine are available through online registration, Canales said.
The site will be closed once all 500 doses have been set off.
Another 500 doses are set aside for those who do not have access to a computer.