SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. Motors offered the parking lot at Dorney Park on Wednesday for a massive vaccination clinic.
It planned two weeks for the Lehigh Valley health network to get the operation up and running.
“We are very excited about it, we are glad that our community of 75 years and older is willing to participate in this kind of endeavor,” said Dr. Alex Benjamin, with LVHN, said.
LVHN is no stranger to managing massive vaccination rooms because every year it has a clinic for runaway flu, but according to doctors, there are some obstacles to a COVID vaccination.
Dr Timothy Friel, infectious disease specialist for LVHN, said the biggest challenge was not knowing when they were going to get doses or how much they were going to get.
“It makes planning for mass vacations like this very, very challenging,” he told Ali Reid, WFMZ.
There should also be a special car park for people to wait the obligatory 15 minutes after vaccination.
All appointments for the transit clinic were quickly filled, and LVHN plans to vaccinate approximately 1,000 people, 75 years and older.
All those who entered also received a follow-up appointment to receive their second dose of Moderna vaccine within a few weeks.
“According to the state, this is actually the only type of promised vaccine we currently know of. Second doses will be supported,” Benjamin said.
LVHN said it does have the capacity to vaccinate at least 5,000 daily, if sufficient supplies are available.
St. Luke’s Health Network also operates mass vaccination centers at its 11 hospital premises. A spokesman says they can vaccinate up to 5,000 people a day, but the supply is also limited to them, and currently about 3,000 doses are administered daily.
“It was frustrating and it was disappointing because we all relied on the federal government through the process to make sure we had the vaccines,” Gov. Tom Wolf told a news conference Tuesday.
About 4 million people in Pennsylvania are eligible to receive the vaccine now, in group 1A, which means that 8 million doses will have to be rolled out in the first phase.
At the moment, the state is far behind.
“We’ve received about 1.5 million vaccinations, and since it’s a two-shot cycle, that means we have enough for basically 750,000 Pennsylvania residents,” Wolf said.