The vehicles were bumper to bumper for the blocks on McGehee Road in Montgomery this morning for the start of a week-long COVID-19 vaccine clinic.
The clinic coincided with the current expansion of people eligible for vaccines in Alabama, a new group that includes ages 65 to 74.
The Montgomery clinic, on the former site of the Montgomery Mall, is one of eight in Alabama that runs from Monday to Friday.
Baptist Health runs the Montgomery clinic. It is a first-come, first-served clinic, open from 9 am to 7 pm
Plans are for each of the eight clinics to deliver up to 5,000 injections this week.
The Montgomery clinic started well before that pace. Montgomery City / County Emergency Management Agency director Christina Thornton said the clinic would deliver between 2,000 and 2,100 injections on the first day when it closed at 7 pm.
Thornton said Baptist Health supplemented the injections available to the clinic using about 1,000 of its second dose stock, because they will be replenished. That would allow the clinic to deliver 2,000 injections today and still have 4,000 available for the rest of the week, said Thornton.
Thornton said today’s big turnout was not a surprise. She said it was expected based on attendance at another recent clinic at the same location and because of the expansion of who is eligible.
Related: 8 cities obtain mass COVID vaccination sites in Alabama: Where are they, who qualifies for vaccination?
Baptist Health lists those eligible for injections as:
People aged 65 and over; Health professionals; first responders including EMS, firefighters and police; and critical frontline workers, including prison guards, food and agriculture officials, US postal service workers, manufacturing workers, grocery workers, public transport workers, people working in the education sector (teachers, staff support staff, community college and higher education), child assistants, judiciary (including, but not limited to) circuit judges, district judges and district attorneys, and people who work or live in congregated settings.
Ethel McClain, of Montgomery, 65, said she waited about two and a half hours to receive her injection, which came just after 11 am. McClain said it was worth the wait.
“When I heard they were giving today, I didn’t hesitate,” said McClain.
Ethel McClain de Montgomery gives a thumbs up after his COVID-19 fired at a Montgomery clinic this morning at No. 9 fire station at the site of the former Montgomery Mall. The clinic is scheduled to operate every day until Friday. McClain was the 477th person to be shot at the clinic this morning, as marked on his windshield.
Organizers channeled vehicles in three lines through the open bays of fire station No. 9 at the south end of the complex that was once the mall. People were shot in their vehicles. Clinic staff wrote numbers and hours on erasable markers on the windshield. Workers and police officers directed the recipients of the fire brigade’s shot into a parking area for a 15-minute wait to make sure there was no serious reaction.
McClain was the 477th person to receive an injection this morning. She said it was the Pfizer vaccine. She received a card with a date to return for her second dose in a few weeks. Follow-up clinics are planned in Montgomery and the other seven locations for second doses.
Michele L. Canady, substitute professor at Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School in Montgomery since 2004, received her injection this morning and volunteered at the clinic. She checked the recipients of the injection while waiting 15 minutes for possible reactions.
“It was so exciting for me to be part of something bigger than myself,” said Canady. “I knew I wanted to help.”
Michele L. Canady, a volunteer at the Montgomery vaccination clinic, this morning, checks Jack and Rose Ingram of Dothan after they receive the vaccines.
Autauga County Emergency Management Agency director Ernie Baggett said around midday that the clinic was working well. He said there were some problems with traffic control early in the morning, but they have been fixed. Baggett said he would work at the clinic all week.
“We are all contributing to this,” said Baggett.
Vehicles lined up for vaccines at the COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Montgomery on Monday. The clinic delivered 2,000 injections on the first day of a weeklong event.