COVID-19 Vaccinations Begin at Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center
While the amount of COVID-19 vaccine is limited, people age 65 and older who were lucky enough to snag an appointment got their first dose on Thursday at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center.
The venue is one of nine sites across the state that started administering the vaccine on Thursday.
“Everybody that’s coming today has an appointment, pre-scheduled,” said Abhi Andley, owner of Homeland Health Specialists.
From Thursday through Saturday, 2,400 people will get the Pfizer version of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Earle Brown Heritage Center. It’s an initial pilot run organized by the state, along with various health care systems.
“As we’re learning about COVID and the specific nuances of how to administer the COVID vaccine in the community, as we’re learning about how fast that really happens, that’s really the purpose of this pilot,” Andley said, “is to try to learn as much as possible so we can do it as efficiently as possible as quickly as possible.”
Each nurse on site will administer about a dozen vaccinations per hour.
A learning process
After someone gets their shot, they’ll go to a waiting area for 15 minutes. While waiting, health care professionals can monitor them for any adverse reactions.
“We’re hopeful that there won’t be any long lines, but we know at some points there will be,” Andley said. “That people can get through here, get vaccinated, and after their waiting period, be out in under 30 minutes, is our goal. But it’s gonna take some time to get there, and we’re gonna learn along the way.”
A line of people waiting to get their COVID-19 vaccination in Brooklyn Center extended out the door.
Whether the Earle Brown Heritage Center remains a permanent vaccination site in the coming months will depend on how much of the vaccine comes into the state.
For now, the demand exceeds the supply, so state health officials are asking people to be patient. They also want to remind everyone that no walk-ins are available.
“Every single dose that we have here is assigned to a specific individual, which is why we can’t have walk-ups unfortunately,” said Eddie Haubrich, incident commander with the state emergency operations center.
