The state Division of Public Health and other medical partners have been peppering the Fairbanks and North Pole area with free pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics.
In the last week or so, there were short-term events at the Noel Wein Library, the J.P. Jones Center, the Farmers Market, and the Home Show. Last Thursday afternoon at Catholic Schools of Fairbanks, and last Saturday afternoon at Ester Community Park. Some were for everyone over 12, but there was a just-for-teens event for youths aged 12-15 years old to get the Pfizer vaccine last Saturday at Tanana Valley Clinic. Tanana Chiefs Conference held a day-long clinic last Saturday.
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The clinic takes full advantage of the space in the John A. Carlson Community Activity Center, with greeters directing patients to sanitize their hands, then walk down a wide aisle to register at a pair of desks, before being directed to a vaccination table. Monitoring some of the activity is Dr. Mark Simon from the Emergency Department at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. He says it is quite a bit different from the first clinics, which were not as smooth.
Hundreds of cars jammed the front parking lot of the Carlson Center at previous clinics so patient parking was moved to the back.
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The logistics for moving hundreds of people through here over a two-day mass clinic are actually pretty simple, but as Dr. Mark Simon explains them, he notes they are still getting worked out.
“So there will be a screening process that will happen in the car, and some paperwork for registration. And then, there has been a text process that they’ve been using, to notify people to come in, but sometimes there have been some hiccups with that.”
Dr. Simon came over to the Carlson Center Wednesday afternoon after his shift in the Emergency Department at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital to describe what patients might experience.