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A crowd of gray-haired drivers drove through orange traffic cones, red signs and a white tent on Sunday to receive COVID-19 vaccinations without ever leaving their cars.
About 1,000 people over the age of 70 received the first dose of Pfizer vaccine in a parking lot outside Coors Field as part of a UCHealth drive-thru that served as a dry run before a much larger vaccination effort important scheduled for next weekend.
Sunday’s vaccinations were meant to test the setup and allow UCHealth to fix issues before next weekend, when organizers hope to vaccinate up to 10,000 people at the drive-thru site in two days. The vaccine is only distributed to people with an appointment; all others who show up are refused.
The test run went well on Sunday – traffic flowed steadily to 18 individual tents where drivers were vaccinated. After the first hour, UCHealth added additional driver instruction and enlisted another fluttering flag to point people in the right direction.
Once the patients were vaccinated, they had to wait about 15 minutes in another parking lot to make sure they didn’t experience any negative reactions. There were signs telling drivers to honk their horns or turn on their turn signals if they started to feel sick. Roving medical observers monitored this lot.
Robb Pickard, 70, took a selfie as he received the vaccine on Sunday, less than 10 minutes after stopping in line. The process was smooth and easy, he said.
“I hope this helps me and others to get back to a bit of normal,” he said.
Richard Zane, chief of emergency medicine at UCHealth, said mass vaccinations like the one scheduled for next weekend are one of three ways that healthcare providers can administer vaccines. Injections can also be given from fixed clinics, such as doctors’ offices, or mobile clinics, which can go to communities that are more difficult to reach.
“The sooner we all get vaccinated, the sooner we can put this in our rearview mirror,” he said. UCHealth currently has the capacity to do about 30,000 vaccinations per week, spokesman Dan Weaver said, but is actually giving about half that number due to the limited supply of the vaccine.
The state of Colorado has committed 10,000 doses for next weekend’s event, Zane said. Doses distributed on Sunday were kept under surveillance in special freezers at Coors Field until injected into patients.
Anyone vaccinated must have an appointment in advance, and anyone can sign up to be vaccinated through UCHealth, either through its website or by calling 720-462-2255 – those who qualify to be vaccinated , as people over the age of 70 will then be notified when an appointment is available.
Sandra Haselden, 73, hopes the vaccination will give her a little more freedom to navigate the world this year. She suffers from an immune deficiency and has stayed at home throughout the pandemic, without even going to the grocery store.
“It’s been a very boring and restrictive life,” she says. “It’s hard not to fall into landfills.”
Once she gets her second dose of the vaccine – in about three weeks – she can’t wait to run errands and get out of the house.
“I want this crud to go away, so if it takes a needle in your arm, it’s worth it,” she said.
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