Blake Bates, 79, of Selma, waited about 40 minutes in his car at Memorial Stadium in Bloch Park near downtown Selma to get a COVID-19 vaccine in his left arm while sitting in his car Monday morning.
“I was at the library and decided to drive by and see how busy it was,” Bates said. “It took about 40 minutes, which was not bad.”
Assets are black, like most others waiting in line. Dallas County is nearly 70 percent black.
Maegan Austin, spokeswoman for the Vaughn Regional Medical Center in Selma, which coordinated mass tests, said hospital workers do not ask about race on the forms people fill out before they get shots. But so far, the racial composition reflects Dallas and the surrounding Black Belt provinces.
“It’s going to be about 70 percent black,” Austin said.
The mass drive website in Selma accepts patients from Dallas, Perry, Marengo, Lowndes and Wilcox, who are all black provinces.
“It’s going well, better than expected,” Austin said. “At the rate we are going, our small community will be taken care of.”
The stadium grounds, led by hospital staff and volunteers and nursing students from Wallace State Community College, administered approximately 900 to 1,000 doses of Moderna vaccine on Monday afternoon.
The site is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through Friday. By Friday, 5,000 doses of vaccine should be administered, Austin said. School teachers were among those vaccinated, along with those 65 and older, those with serious medical problems, and essential workers, including utility workers, she said.
She said the Vaughn Regional Medical Center began administering vaccines to hospitals and other front-line workers in December. In January, the hospital handed out 900 doses to first responders and medical workers, and those 70 years and older.
As Bates left the yard after his shot, a worker shouted at him, “Congratulations!”
According to Bates, he is relieved to get his shot. “Just the thought of being part of an epidemic is frightening,” he said.