A drive-thru of the COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Gadsden ended after three hours, when the vaccine supply ran out.
The Gadsden / Etowah County EMA said those who were not yet in the parking lot would have to wait until the next vaccination clinic, which will be announced later.
The clinic was focused on first responders (EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement), top health care providers and support workers, among others, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health allocation plan. Etowah County, unlike most Alabama counties, also extended the initial round to include residents over 75 and others in the second wave of vaccines.
The line to the clinic extended in two different directions – George Wallace Drive towards Interstate 759 and Memorial Bridge on Broad Street.
Wendy Miller, a clinical director, said she joined the drive thru queue at George Wallace Drive at 6:57 am, just under a kilometer from The Venue, the community site where the vaccine was being administered. She arrived near the site about three hours later, shortly after the vaccine supply ran out.
“I arrived at the entrance at 10 and they rejected us saying they had no vaccine,” she said.
On Monday, when EMA officials announced the clinic, they said they had only a limited number of vaccines. Authorities said that each Alabama county health department received 500 doses of the Moderna vaccine. Etowah and Calhoun counties chose to include more people in their initial round. Most counties in Alabama still offer vaccines only to first-wave people, such as frontline health workers and nursing home residents and employees.
“It would be wonderful if the Etowah County Department of Public Health had an unlimited amount of vaccines to distribute, but unfortunately, they don’t,” said the original announcement. “One of the hospitals in our area does not yet have the required quota of vaccines for their health workers, so the vaccine is slow to implement for everyone. We ask everyone to be patient with the efforts of local hospitals, agencies and departments to try to distribute the VERY limited amount of vaccines that are provided to the local health department. “