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The queue for a drive-thru vaccination clinic at Triangle North Airport in Franklin County has caused traffic blocks and deterred people from getting vaccinated.
Sky 5 video showed the line of cars stretching for at least a mile down the nearby road, causing traffic jams and frustration.
Several people posted complaints on social media or called WRAL while in line.
A couple, who said they had a meeting set for 9:30 a.m., said they had been in line for a few hours – only for a traffic assistant to advise them to leave and return in two hours.
Michael McDowell, who was also waiting in the long queue, said the wait was so bad that he turned and left.
A post on Facebook read: “Currently at the Louisburg drive-thru vaccination site. They didn’t start until 10 a.m., and the line was already 2 miles from the airport at 9.45 a.m. “.
The registration information provided by the vaccine organizers reads as follows: “Only people who have received a confirmation by phone or email with the date, time and location of tomorrow’s clinic can attend” and that only “people 65 years of age and over and frontline health workers who have completed the enrollment process accepted.”
Franklin County Health Director Scott LaVigne plans to review how the day went to learn some lessons. He also plans to contact the Wake County director of health to find out how he could coordinate efforts in the future.
“This is the first time that we have had a lot of people coming from Wake County and other surrounding counties for this event,” said LaVigne. “This is really what helped [the line]. We want to be good neighbors. “
LaVigne says that despite the wait, operations went pretty well. In all, 1,510 patients were vaccinated Thursday before they had to start discharging people around 3 p.m.
“At one point we had 234 [patients] in an hour that we have spent, explained LaVigne. It’s phenomenal.
Despite organizing the event with registration and appointments, the long lines and waiting times seemed to cause many people to miss their appointments – even discouraging some people from getting the COVID vaccine -19 today.
But LaVigne is confident in the county’s ability to adjust the number of patients while running the distribution efficiently.
“If we have the vaccine… we’re going to take you through our process and put you on the right track. This is what we want to do, this is what we are doing really well,” said LaVigne.
He says he will seek to coordinate with the Wake County Department of Health for the next round of vaccines there.
“What we weren’t ready for was mass migration, for lack of a better word, of people coming [this] held here today, “said LaVigne.” I emailed the Wake County Health Director. I want to make sure that we are pooling our resources … so that we can coordinate things better. “
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