Farm and Ranch Museum gears up for December COVID-19 vaccination push

From staff reports
·2 min read

LAS CRUCES – The Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum has been offering free COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesdays since October; and New Mexico's emergency management agency on Monday highlighted the program for residents looking to be vaccinated.

While the state has worked to expand vaccine providers, moving the shots away from mass vaccination events and into more routine care settings, demand for vaccines has increased as have supplies sent to the state by federal authorities.

Noting that the state health department's vaccine registry website indicates several local events being booked in advance, the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management issued a public reminder that vaccinations are also available at the museum.

Gregory Blok receives a vaccine at a clinic offering COVID-19 vaccinations at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.
Gregory Blok receives a vaccine at a clinic offering COVID-19 vaccinations at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.

Supplies allocated to the museum for Dec. 7 and 14 were anticipated to cover more than 500 doses for each day.

The program continues to offer service from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. on Tuesdays only, with adult primary and booster doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech as well Johnson and Johnson available. Per guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, individuals may take a booster dose of a vaccine different than the one used for their primary course.

Flu shots will also be available and health officials say individuals may safely receive both in one visit.

The museum has offered the Tuesday vaccination events free to the public since October. Wheelchairs are available for visitors, and after receiving a shot visitors are promised free admission to the rest of the museum for the day.

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Participants are asked to register for the event online at http://VaccineNM.org/registration. Telephone service is available for those in need via 855-600-3453, option 3.

The museum is located at 4100 Dripping Springs Road.

A sign outside the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces welcomes visitors receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021.
A sign outside the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces welcomes visitors receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021.

On Monday, the state health department reported 3,794 new cases over three days including the weekend, bringing the state's total to 324,311 since the onset of the pandemic in New Mexico in March of 2020.

While 84 percent of those cases have been designated as recovered, over 5,400 have proven fatal. The state's test positivity rate continued to hover around 14 percent, and hospitalizations continued strain the state's healthcare system, where eight hospitals have enacted crisis standards of care.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Farm and Ranch Museum gears up for December COVID-19 vaccination push