FORT WORTH, Texas — With temperatures down and dropping, the Tarrant County Public Health Department rolled out new ways to help COVID-19 vaccine recipients and workers beat the cold Wednesday.
“We’ve got better heaters,” said Vinny Taneja, public health director. “There’s tents out there. There’s talk about getting people to donate hand warmers.”
Temperatures in the 30s didn’t stop residents from their scheduled pandemic protection Wednesday, but with even lower temperatures in the forecast, some are sites like the Texas Motor Speedway and another in North Richland Hills are expected to close.
Some vaccine recipients at other locations might skip their appointments and choose to stay home.
For Tarrant county residents, new COVID-19 vaccine options could soon be on the way, including a partnership between Tarrant County and Fort Worth ISD that would create a drive-thru vaccine site near Farrington Field -- on the corner of University Drive and Lancaster Avenue.
“The tentative launch date is still this Friday, weather dependent,” Taneja said. “The goal is to do a soft launch on Friday, not a whole lot of people maybe 500, 600 just to make sure everything works. If the weather gets really bad we’ll just push that off to Saturday and do a thousand on Saturday.”
A second drive-thru vaccine site is expected to launch on Saturday at the Amon G. Carter Stadium parking lot at TCU.
“Their goal is three days a week also, I think Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Taneja said.
More days could be added as more doses become available.
There’s also a vaccine plan in the works with UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
While details are still being worked out, the partnership could eventually involve mobile vaccine sites and at-home vaccine options.