As residents’ frustration intensified, the Southern Nevada Health District on Thursday lifted its demand for consultations at its Las Vegas convention center, dedicated to administering second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Residents, especially those 70 and older, have increasingly expressed frustration and fury over not being able to schedule their second doses through the district website due to the collapse of the website or the speed with which the appointments filled up.
To make room for visitors, the district said in an afternoon statement that it had canceled appointments for the first dose at the convention center – appointments that should never have been scheduled there.
He also said he had notified people who had made appointments about the cancellations. The district identified them through vaccination records, district representative Jennifer Sizemore said by email. Sizemore was unable to immediately provide a number of how many consultations were canceled or how many visits would be made.
As a result of the cancellations, the district said it would be able to give eligible visitors a second dose within the next four weeks. However, the mere fact of appearing is no guarantee of receiving the second dose.
“Patients will be treated based on the availability of the vaccine,” says the statement.
The announcement was good news for Henderson’s resident Ira Kleiman, 74, who said he would be “delighted” to show up at the convention center on the day he should take a second dose after “consultation purgatory, waiting without stop for a non-existent slot. ”
“I hope you are not considering this problem as geriatric impatience,” he said. “For people my age who haven’t embraced their loved ones in a year and have been sheltering for so long, the protection of the second injection is a lifeline.”
He expressed some skepticism, however, wondering if he would witness a four-hour line of older people in walkers and wheelchairs.
“I’m a little suspicious at this point, depending on their system for managing what could be a flooded system,” he said.
Who is eligible
The only people currently qualified as walk-ins are those who received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine between January 4 and 9. The recommended deadline for the second dose of the Modern vaccine is four weeks after the first, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the interval can reach six weeks.
The district will accept only walk-ins that received their first doses at these locations or events: the health district at Decatur Boulevard, Cashman Center, Western High School, Jerome Mack Middle School and vaccination events organized in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Touro University.
“Second-dose vaccine supplies are received based on the number of first doses administered, and the Health District is able to vaccinate everyone who received their first dose at one of their clinics,” the statement said.
People who received the vaccine from another provider or received the Pfizer vaccine are not eligible to receive a second immediate dose, the health district said. Sizemore said he did not have a date to provide at this point when those who received the Pfizer vaccine would be eligible.
The convention center site is open from Tuesday to Saturday, and qualified visits will be accepted from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm or until vaccine doses run out.
The vaccination site is off Paradise Road on Convention Center Drive, in area C-1 of Central Hall.
The health district continues to send an appointment link via email to those who signed up and provided an email address. Others can use the publicly available link: snhd.info/get-vaccine/lvccc.
The press release urged people with questions or who need help to make an appointment to call the health district at 702-759-1900. The line runs from 8am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday.
Contact Mary Hynes at [email protected]. Follow @ MaryHynes1 on twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.