Vehicles were bumper-to-bumper for blocks this morning on McGehee Road in Montgomery for the start of a week-long COVID-19 vaccination clinic.
The clinic coincided with today’s expansion of those shot for shots in Alabama, a new group that is 65 to 74 years old.
The Montgomery Clinic, on the former grounds of the Montgomery Mall, is one of eight in Alabama that takes place Monday through Friday.
Baptist Health runs the Montgomery Clinic. This is a first-one-first-clinic without appointments and will run from 09:00 to 19:00
The plans are that each of the eight clinics this week will give as many as 5,000 shots.
The Montgomery Clinic started before that pace. Christina Thornton, director of the emergency management agency in Montgomery City / County, said the clinic would give between 2,000 and 2,100 shots on the first day by the time it closed at 7 p.m.
Thornton said Baptist Health supplemented the shots available for the clinic by using about 1,000 from its second-dose store because it would be replenished. Thornton said the clinic can give 2,000 shots today and is still available 4,000 for the rest of the week.
Thornton said the heavy rise of today is not a surprise. She said this is expected based on the turnout at another clinic in the same location and because of the increase in who is eligible.
Related: 8 cities get massive COVID vaccination sites in Alabama: where are they, who qualifies for vaccinations?
Baptist Health lists those who are eligible for the shots, as:
People 65 years and older; health workers; first response, including EMS, firefighters and law enforcement; and frontline critical workers, including correctional officers, food and agriculture workers, U.S. postal workers, manufacturers, grocery stores, public transportation, people working in the education sector (teachers, support staff, community college and higher education), child care workers, legal staff (including but not limited to not to) circuit judges, district judges and district attorneys, and people who work or live in a congregational area.
Ethgel McClain of Montgomery, 65, said she waited about two and a half hours to receive her shot, which arrived shortly after 11 p.m. McClain said it’s worth the wait.
“When I heard they were giving it today, I did not hesitate,” McClain said.
Ethel McClain of Montgomery gives a thumbs up to her COVID-19 shot this morning at a clinic in Montgomery at Fire Station no. 9 on the site of the old Montgomery Mall. The clinic is scheduled to be open every day until Friday. McClain was the 477th person to receive a shot in the clinic this morning, as indicated on her windshield.
Organizers pulled the vehicles in three lines through the open bays of Fire Station no. 9 on the south side of the complex that was once the shopping center. People got the shots in their vehicles. Clinic workers wrote numbers and times in erasable marker on windshields. Workers and police directed the recipients of the fire station to a parking lot for 15 minutes to make sure there was no serious reaction.
McClain was the 477th person to receive a shot this morning. She said it was the Pfizer vaccine. She received a ticket with a date to return for the second dose within a few weeks. Follow-up clinics are planned for second doses in Montgomery and at the other seven sites.
Michele L. Canady, a substitute teacher at Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School in Montgomery since 2004, received her shot this morning and volunteered at the clinic. She checked the recipients of the shots while they waited their 15 minutes for possible reactions.
“It was so exciting for me to be a part of something bigger than me,” Canady said. “I knew I wanted to come and help.”
Michele L. Canady, a volunteer at the shot clinic in Montgomery this morning, looks at Jack and Rose Ingram of Dothan after receiving their vaccinations.
The director of the emergency management agency of Autauga County, Ernie Baggett, said yesterday afternoon that the clinic is working smoothly. He said there were problems with traffic control early in the morning, but it was rectified. Baggett said he will be working at the clinic all week.
“We’re all throwing this one in,” Baggett said.
Vehicles were shot Monday at the COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Montgomery. The clinic gave 2,000 shots on the first day of a week-long event.