DALLAS, Texas. – The golf carts came and went without stopping, they looked like bumper cars carrying and bringing passengers. Sanjay Noham was driving one and said that this Tuesday he had been, “very busy.”
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That’s because from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. he had made more than 50 laps, transporting 300 people to the building in the state fair park in Dallas to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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“I only had a half-hour break,” said Noham, who volunteers there.
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Neither he nor any of the other car drivers were supposed to be working or assisting in the vaccination operation that Dallas County is carrying out there on Tuesday.
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“There was definitely confusion,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said wearily, apologizing in front of television cameras and also on Twitter.
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This Tuesday, the fair park was supposed to operate exclusively as a mobile vaccination center.
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But the county was informed that the vaccines could not be under the tents, in the open, if the ambient temperature was not 40 degrees or more.
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Given the arrival of the winter wave that day, the county then decided to order generators and heaters in advance to continue vaccinating.
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But at 6.30am on Tuesday morning those generators and heaters had not arrived.
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The operation then changed, at the last minute, to in-person vaccination inside the building where it had been carried out before, but no one was informed.
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Those who had to make the line in their cars, park and wait to be taken to be vaccinated, had to arm themselves with patience.
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Norma Burrow, a senior citizen of Dallas County, told us that she had been waiting 4 1/2 hours in her car on by the heat, with no bathroom nearby. And she was not the only one.
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The line of cars circled the entire park.
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The county was able to purchase few heaters and generators on its own, allowing only one tent to open to serve people from their cars.
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The rest of those who arrived by appointment had to wait for a golf cart to take them to the building.
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However, once inside the process was quick, with heating and bathrooms.
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Christian Grisales, spokesman for the Dallas County Health Department, told us that the idea is that this Wednesday the initial plan will start.
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“As of this Wednesday, we will open self-service vaccination to 100% in order to speed up the process. People who could not be vaccinated yesterday can return with their appointment to receive the vaccine, “said Grisales.
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We asked him if those people who missed their appointments needed to ask for a new one and he said no.
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Grisales also announced that the vaccination day this Wednesday will start at noon, so if you had an appointment in the morning, they will not attend you until that time.
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Is there going to be more accumulation of cars, more waiting for this? We do not know. We’ll see.
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Grisales recommended that you have ready to show the code they gave you when you received your appointment or the card they gave you to return and receive the second dose. That could help the process go faster.
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Through a cartoon, this is how this doctor explains how the coronavirus vaccine works
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What is Tarrant County doing to improve the immunization registration process?
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