IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Iredell County hosted another first come, first serve COVID-19 vaccination clinic Monday, and dozens of cars were lined up hours ahead of the event.
Health officials said doing so is not encouraged, but they have seen many people camp out overnight to secure a spot in line.
Today: there’s a first come, first served vaccine clinic at Mazeppa Park in Mooresville. It starts at 10am & health care workers, nursing home staff/residents & people 65+ are eligible for the 500 doses. I’m live all morning on @wsoctv with the changes these clinics are prompting pic.twitter.com/RpNp5wQpN8
— Anthony Kustura (@AnthonyWSOC9) February 8, 2021
Long lines could be seen from Chopper 9 with cars bumper to bumper around several baseball fields.
Robert Dobson told Channel 9 he was determined to get vaccinated. Monday was his third attempt to get the shot and he arrived at the clinic site at 11:30 p.m. Sunday in order to get the fourth spot in line.
“If I don’t get it now, I don’t think I’m ever gonna get it,” Dobson said.
Diane Emery said she is eager to get the vaccine as an in-home care worker, but also understands arriving just two hours early may not secure her a spot. She said she’s already been turned away once before.
“After a few minutes, they told us sorry they ran out,” Emery said. “They had 500 shots and that was it.”
Here’s a look at all those cars from @WSOCChopper9. We’re told the clinic started a little before 10 so they’re making a lot of progress but you can see it wraps around. @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/i2lKcryiH1
— Anthony Kustura (@AnthonyWSOC9) February 8, 2021
The clinic started at 10 a.m. at the Mazeppa Park in Mooresville. It is a huge effort from the Iredell County Health Department, the police department and the fire department.
Health officials said there were 500 doses available on a first come, first serve basis until they ran out. The vaccine is available for health care workers, nursing home staff and residents and those who are 65 and older.
A spokesperson for the Iredell County Health Department said they are working on an improved system to make the vaccines more accessible, but they are sticking with the current method for now.
“We are going to continue offering it to the community just so we don’t run the risk of losing the doses that we hope to get and so that we can continue vaccinating in the interim,” the spokesperson said. “So while first come, first serve is not ideal we are just going to have to go with that until we can get our appointment set up, which should be in about two weeks.”
The spokesperson also said not everyone has a car or the ability to wait for hours in line so they are working to improve that as well.
“We are making plans when we move to our appointment system to work with some of our existing programs where we can reach out to at-risk groups and underserved populations so that is a big goal of our moving forward and moving to the appointment slots is to target these at-risk groups and underserved populations,” the spokesperson said.
Some people, like Emery, feel like they should have started the appointment-based system from the start.
“I’m supposedly, you know, at risk so why wasn’t that done first,” Emery said.
For the first come, first serve method, each person received a number when they arrived at the vaccination clinic. As long as you had a number, you were vaccinated.
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