The mass vaccination site at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will begin administering vaccines on Wednesday, adding another way for residents of the area to receive coronavirus vaccines as officials prepare for increased supplies.
About 700 people will receive injections at the facility on Wednesday, according to officials at LCMC Health, which will operate the federally funded facility in conjunction with the New Orleans Department of Health and the state.
Hundreds of other doses will be offered on the spot on Thursday and Friday, when LCMC, like other health professionals across Louisiana, is expected to receive the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine.
“We will start tomorrow and move on to Thursday and weekend,” Dr. Jeffrey Elder of the University Medical Center, director of emergency preparedness operations at LCMC Health, told a New Orleans City Council committee on Tuesday. “We hope to be able to vaccinate next week as well.”
Vaccines will be offered to eligible residents who have requested them through the LCMC or the city health department. Markings are necessary to avoid the creation of long lines, on a first-come, first-served basis, plaguing similar places of mass movement in other parts of the country.
On Wednesday, vaccination will be given to people who have already been selected off the waiting lists. People who want to sign up for later dates can book appointments from 7am on Wednesday.
The inauguration comes a week after LCMC officials announced that they would use the Convention Center building to vaccinate large numbers of residents. The plan, they said, was to start with hundreds of doses a day and then increase to thousands as more supplies arrived.
Since vaccine distribution in the United States began in December, most people eligible to receive vaccines in Louisiana have obtained them through a constellation of pharmacies, clinics and hospitals.
But in recent weeks, hospital operators and local authorities have accelerated plans for larger facilities that will serve thousands of people a day.
Ochsner Health said it will host a drive-thru vaccination event at Shrine on Airline on Thursday, where it plans to administer 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Half of the doses will go to patients who received their first dose at a drive-thru event a month ago, while the rest will go to eligible residents who can obtain an appointment through Ochsner.
Jefferson Parish said he would also host a drive-thru event Thursday at the Alario Center, which is also by appointment.
More than 657,000 Louisiana residents received at least one dose of the vaccine, while about 370,000 received both doses, according to data from the Louisiana Department of Health.
Since December, LCMC has distributed more than 60,000 vaccines under the Pfizer or Moderna brand, Elder said, injections that require refrigerated storage or shipping and that must be taken in two doses several weeks apart.
But it is set, like other hospitals in the state, to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week. This vaccine requires normal refrigeration temperatures and can be administered in a single dose.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 72% effective in preventing moderate to severe cases of coronavirus in clinical trials in the United States, but 100% effective in preventing death. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, in turn, are more than 94% effective in preventing the symptoms of COVID-19.
Residents will receive any vaccine that the LCMC has available, health leaders said. Elder praised the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine on Tuesday as an efficient way to prevent people from dying from the virus and eventually achieving collective immunity.
“It keeps them out of hospitals and keeps them from dying,” he said. “We cannot underestimate how important it is to take people to clinics to vaccinate them.”
For its launch at the Convention Center this week, LCMC is using a waiting list of eligible beneficiaries compiled by the city’s health department and its own hospitals. Only people aged 65 and over, people with certain health conditions, elementary and high school teachers or daycare centers, pregnant women and other selected groups are eligible for vaccines.
The hospital operator is also working with the Regional Traffic Authority to identify places where people can be picked up and transported directly to the Convention Center to receive their vaccines.
There will likely be two collection sites, one in New Orleans East and one in Algiers, said LCMC’s Administrative Health Director, Dr. Ayame Dinkler.
Residents who can drive to the center to be vaccinated can park their cars in parking lot F, in front of Hall J, she said.
With a mass vaccination website going online, a spokesman for the City said on Tuesday that the city is closing its own COVID-19 test sites and shifting its focus to vaccine administration.
The test sites administered by the Louisiana National Guard and CORE will continue to serve residents, said spokesman Beau Tidwell.
The city is also looking for volunteers who can help it maintain its vaccination list across the city, help with the city’s 311 call center and work at city-administered vaccination sites. Some 2,000 people have signed up so far, but the city expects to at least double that number.
Workers applying for help are considered emergency response personnel under state guidelines, although there is no guarantee that enough vaccines will be available to everyone who signs up, said Nova Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Engagement Manager New York. Orleans, Laura Mellem.
Appointment details and contact information:
To make an appointment with LCMC Health, qualified residents can call 504-290-5200 or access the Internet at lcmchealth.org/vaccine.
To make an appointment with Jefferson Parish, eligible residents can call 504-518-4020 or access the Internet at covidvaccinations.jeffparish.net.
To make an appointment with Ochsner Health, qualified residents can call (844) 888-2772 or use the MyOchsner online patient portal.
A complete schedule of all public test sites in New Orleans can be found at https://ready.nola.gov/incident/coronavirus/calenda
Writers Jeff Adelson and Faimon A. Roberts III contributed to this story.