Fair Park opened Monday morning as a hub to vaccinate residents against COVID-19. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said he planned for 120 people to be vaccinated each hour Monday Morning, increasing to 180 people per hour Monday afternoon and 200 people per hour by Tuesday.
"This is the next phase. It's exciting to have it," Huang says. "We are working with the state. We told them, 'Send us as much vaccine as you can give us.' We're anxious to get this going and getting our citizens vaccinated."
"We're going to get a lot of people vaccinated today," says Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
Appointments are required. People can find information about how to register here.
Appointments started at 8 a.m., but some people started pulling up outside Fair Park about 6 a.m. Monday.
"I wanted to get in and get out because I've got to go to work after a while," one man near the front of the line said.
"I'm just glad I got here to get in this line before it gets too long," another said, three cars from the front. "Anytime I've got something to do, I like to get on out and do it. I was hoping I'd be first."
The Texas Department of State Health Services says 28 "hub providers" will receive 158,825 doses of the vaccine this week. Other providers can expect 38,300 doses, and about 500,000 "second doses" will also be provided.
While more doses of the vaccine are available, Huang says people need to keep following social distancing guidelines and capacity limits. Monday, the Texas Department of State Health Services says hospitals in North Texas had a record 4,058 COVID-19 patients using 27.17% of capacity. January 1, hospitals in the area had 3,764 COVID-19 patients.
"We are having huge numbers," Huang says. "We're really still assessing the impact from Christmas. We're very concerned about where we're going with this stress on our healthcare system."
Anyone can register to be notified when the vaccine is available, but it is currently only available to healthcare workers, long-term care facility patients, first responders, and people 65 or older or who have a chronic health condition.
Mayor Eric Johnson says he hopes to bring more doses of the vaccine to more sites in Dallas County soon, but Fair Park was chosen to make the vaccine available equally to people who live in areas where a large percentage of people work in fields like hospitality and food service.
"Vaccinations represent the final frontier in the battle against COVID-19," Johnson says. "We're going to overcome COVID-19 by working together."
Two other vaccination hubs are open in Dallas County, at Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Two hubs are open in Tarrant County, operated by Tarrant County Public Health and Texas Health Resources. Details on how to register are available HERE.
Denton County Public Health has one location. Details on how to register are available HERE.
Collin County does not have a vaccination hub, but residents can register to receive the vaccine HERE.
