Tarrant County, Fort Worth ISD work to open 2 drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination sites
Fort Worth school officials will consider a plan Tuesday to allow Tarrant County to establish drive-thru COVID vaccination sites near Billingsly Field House and Wilkerson-Greines Activities Center.
The drive-thru clinic near Farrington Field could inoculate as many as 2,500 people per day, county administrator G.K. Maenius told the Star-Telegram Editorial Board on Friday. The clinic will help determine the logistics for future drive-thru operations.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley has praised drive-thru locations such as the mega-site at Texas Motor Speedway. He previously said the county should think about partnering with Denton County to get Tarrant County residents vaccinated there. The speedway is in the Denton County portion of Fort Worth.
Earlier Friday, Mayor Betsy Price toured the Texas Motor Speedway site and said a similar operation is needed in Tarrant County.
“We’re working with our county friends every day and their partners to see what we can do,” Price said.
Denton County opened the drive-thru mega site on Tuesday with the goal to vaccinate 30,000 people a day by the end of Friday. The county had vaccinated 24,700 people as of Friday morning. Those who received a vaccination registered through Denton County’s website or called 940-349-2585.
Anyone under Texas’ 1a group (front-line health care workers or those living or working at long-term care facilities) or 1b group (those 65 or older or those with health conditions) may register through Denton County. As of Friday, about 217,000 people were on the wait list, Denton County Judge Andy Eads said.
Anyone can register for a shot as Denton County Public Health is a state-designated vaccination hub, but Price encouraged only residents of Denton County to do so.
“This is Denton County’s allocation,” she said.
But Price doesn’t want it to stay that way. She said the site can serve all of North Texas if officials work together to make it happen.
“We’ve got enough resources between all of us,” she said.
Denton County has the speedway booked for the next month, Eads said. People that have already been vaccinated will come back to the site for the second dose.
Officials said people are usually in and out in about 30 minutes and never have to get out of their car. The site’s efficiency has even caught the eyes of the White House, Eads said.
“They’ve got our footprint,” he said. “They know that we’re succeeding, and we want to be able to ramp it up in the weeks to come.”
The Fort Worth school district sites would be in the parking lot adjacent to Billingsley Field House, just east of Farrington Field, on Lancaster Avenue, and in the parking lot of the Wilkerson-Greines Activities Center at 5201 C.A. Roberson Blvd.
