KANSAS CITY, Ma. The Johnson County Department of Health and the Environment will make adjustments to the COVID-19 vaccination site after residents waited in long queues on Tuesday and were not socially distant.
Johnson County resident Carol Caviar said she was relieved to receive her first dose of Covid-19 vaccine Tuesday, but the wait outside in the cold was not pleasant.
“It’s freezing here, someone said it’s like the Disneyland line and I was like yes, but much colder,” Caviar said.
The director of JCDHE, dr. Sanmi Areola, apologized for the inconvenience and inconvenience experienced at Okun Fieldhouse in Shawnee.
“Our goal was to get as many of our residents vaccinated as possible today and the rest of the week,” Areola said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Areola said there will be better parking and traffic control this morning, along with extra staff. At least 20 intruders will be on site Wednesday, along with more staff to help with the flow of the building and to wait outside, he said.
“It’s a marathon,” Areola said. “We try to do it in phases so you don’t have to wait too long.”
Mary Beverly, deputy director of Johnson County Health and Environment, said the department is working hard to make sure long queues are not an issue for future clinics. She said part of the problem may be that patients arrived an hour early after their appointments.
“We really do not want people to have to do that, because then it could cause a bottleneck. If people can come ten, fifteen minutes before their appointment, I think it’s very helpful,” Beverly said.
The JCDHE announced last week that it will move to phase 2 this week and expect it to take a while to get through the phase.
Dan Danz, said Tuesday’s line moved quickly inside.
“Once you dragged through the line, it wasn’t a big deal,” Danz said.
Danz said he was finally just happy that he finally got his first shot.
“I’ve had self-quarantine with my wife since the first part of March, so I’d be happy to pull out a little bit,” Danz said.
JCDHE said Monday all of its 7,584 vaccination slots he had for the week have already been booked.