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City employees transformed the Beaumont Civic Center into a vaccination hub in a matter of hours -
the city is ready to vaccinate up to 1,000 residents a day at the Civic Center
With COVID-19 vaccines making their way to Southeast Texas – albeit in relatively small increments to date – Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames has made arrangements to administer the vaccine to those who want to be inoculated as soon as doses are made available to pass on to the public.
In anticipation of vaccine arrival, Ames called for the Civic Center to be set up for mass vaccination on Tuesday, Jan. 19. According to the mayor, the city’s cost to run a mass vaccination outlet is minimal, if not next to nothing, thanks to grants and staff reallocation. At the Civic Center, Ames said the city could feasibly administer 1,000 vaccines every day – maybe more.
Now, the only problem is getting the vaccine sent to the Golden Triangle’s most populated city.
“They say they’re sending out vaccines based on population but, so far, the city has only gotten 100,” Ames said. Coupled with another 100 vaccines given to the city from another facility, all the previously acquired vaccines have been used to inoculate first responder fire and police personnel. “Those have, by far, already been administered.”
In addition to remaining staff that falls under the 1a and 1b designation of priority access to the vaccine, more than 2,000 private citizens have also call the city’s health department to be placed on a waiting list to receive the vaccine.
Ames said she and Public Health Director Sherry Ulmer have been doggedly chasing every avenue open to obtain vaccines, currently waiting response on applications to become a designated hub for vaccine administration and another to receive 5,000 doses of the vaccine.
“The whole idea is to get enough vaccines so we can vaccinate the people on our wait list and then go from there,” Ames said. “There’s a lot of moving parts.
“We are doing every one of them that we can. It’s hard to say what we’ll get or when we’ll get it. But, when we do get it, we’ll be ready.”
As workers readied the Civic Center to serve as a mass vaccination outlet, Ames again noted that the city has not yet received any confirmation that the vaccine will be made available as requested.
“If it doesn’t work and we don’t get any vaccines, we still did the right thing.”