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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Dallas County plans to make Fair Park its first mass COVID-19 vaccination site.
The goal is to start administering shots to hundreds of residents on Monday, as long as Dallas County Health and Human Services receives its next shipment from the state in time.
“Preparations are going well at Fair Park,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. “It’s going to hopefully go smoothly and we’re working hard.”
The shot will be administered by appointment only to residents who signed up on the county’s website.
Jenkins says the location is ideal for the operation because it’s in an underserved area.
“And also it’s got good traffic flow in and out,” Judge Jenkins said. “It has really big buildings. It has all the things we’re looking for.”
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The KBH Convention Center and UNT Dallas could eventually be opened up as potential vaccination sites too.
“If we have more sites, it will probably be easier to get things done than if we have one site that’s trying to vaccinate 7,000 to 10,000 people a day,” said Jenkins.
Starting next week, Texas will send most of the COVID-19 vaccine it gets from the federal government to large providers who can vaccinate more than 100,000 people total.
The Texas Department of State Health Services says the vaccination hubs will be a mix of public health departments and large hospitals. When the locations are finalized, the state will post details online.
North Texas county health agencies hope they’re on that list.
“I think if the state will just get the vaccine to be the big vaccination hubs, like Dallas County, Tarrant County and Denton County, then we can take it from there,” said Judge Jenkins.
Tarrant County’s mass vaccination efforts have been continuing this week at a facility in south Fort Worth off I-20 and at the Esports Stadium in Arlington.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley expects to open up the Hurst Conference Center for mass vaccinations next week, along with two or three other locations by the end of January or beginning of February.
Whitley says the county is ready to give more than 15,000 shots per week, as long as they are supplied with enough of the vaccine to do so.
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