photo by: Lauren Fox
Volunteers listened to county and city leaders prior to the start of Douglas County s final mass vaccination clinic on April 28.
Douglas County hosted its last mass COVID-19 vaccination event on Wednesday after more than three months of clinics.
Since Jan. 29, Douglas County has held 26 mass vaccination clinics at the Douglas County Fairgrounds and administered around 55,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Prior to the start of the final event on Wednesday, county and city leaders addressed the crowd of volunteers to thank them for their involvement and commemorate the success of their efforts.
“I have been involved in a lot of things: the births of children, the deaths of a lot of people, the happy times, the sad times, the rewarding times … and I tell you that this clinic has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things I will ever do in my entire career,” Dennis Leslie, division chief of training with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, told
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Douglas County vaccination site has capacity to do more, lacks supply, health officials say
Douglas County vaccination site has capacity to do more, lacks supply, health officials say
and last updated 2021-03-05 18:10:21-05
LAWRENCE, Kan. â More than 1,300 second dose vaccines were administered at the Douglas County Fairgrounds mass vaccination site Friday.
âWe get our allotment of vaccine and within literally a handful of hours, it s out the door, said Dan Partridge, director at Lawrence Douglas County Public Health.
The drive-thru clinic is a well oiled machine, staffed by more than 60 health officials and over 100 volunteers.
âYou get your shot, you stay in the car and once you re done, you drive out and then we have a couple of staging areas to the east where you wait for that 15 minutes and we monitor you, Partridge said.
photo by: Lauren Fox
A traffic manager directs a car from the arena to the pavilion at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on Jan. 29. COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the arena, and people were observed in the pavilion following their vaccinations.
Douglas County would not have enough staff to run its vaccination clinics without volunteers, and the county is seeking more of them as the clinics expand.
It’s a volunteer opportunity that participants have found rewarding and emotional, according to Douglas County’s deputy director of emergency management, Jillian Rodrigue.
“They keep coming out and want to be a part of moving the community forward,” she said. “Many people see the reactions of the folks that are coming through the line after they get the shot, and they are recognizing the impact getting that vaccine has on the community.”