COVID vaccine appointments canceled due to snow, 1 hospital scrambled to get doses out
Snow and ice covered roads in Tarrant County caused COVID-19 vaccine clinics to shut down and appointments to be rescheduled, leading to a couple hundred doses at John Peter Smith Hospital being close to their expiration with no patients to give them to.
So on Tuesday, health care teams at JPS rushed to get those vaccines into arms.
The hospital opened a clinic on the main campus, 1500 S. Main St., and contacted patients who were on the hospital’s waiting list and patients whose appointments were canceled earlier this week to get them vaccinated, hospital spokeswoman Diana Brodeur wrote in an email. Some people told the Star-Telegram they showed up and were able to get vaccines on the spot.
Brodeur said 954 doses were administered on Tuesday within a couple hours.
“The demand was so great and all had made such effort to come into the hospital (both staff and patients),” she wrote. “To get this done, we offered vaccines to many, many more. This is what JPS is here to do: we want to be able to give vaccines to everyone who wants one, as the state and our supply will allow. We are all happy we got that chance today.”
The hospital was also able to help Cook Children’s administer a couple of dozen doses that were about to expire at that hospital.
Because of the weather, JPS won’t schedule appointments for patients over the next few days, but it hopes to open community health clinics Friday through Sunday for rescheduled vaccine appointments, Brodeur wrote.
Tarrant County appointments
The county plans to resume vaccinations on Friday after it closed all of its vaccination sites this week because of the winter storms.
Those who had a second dose due this week will be prioritized as vaccinations resume, a county spokesperson said. People who had appointments will receive their rescheduled dates through a phone call, text and email.
In new guidance, both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine can be administered up to 6 weeks after the first dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The second dose of the Pfizer vaccine is usually administered 21 days after the first and the second dose of Moderna is administered 28 days after the first.
While the public health department looks to resume vaccinations, the county will not open its offices on Thursday and Friday. A public health spokesperson said they want people to be safe, but does not yet have an answer for those that might get an appointment but still are dealing with outages or don’t feel like it might be safe to drive.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 1:38 PM.
