HUNTSVILLE, Alabama —
Click here for the latest on COVID-19 vaccines in Alabama.
From Feb. 8-12, a Huntsville Hospital COVID vaccine clinic will be held at the Jaycees Building at John Hunt Park. Vaccinations are given by appointment only to those in eligible groups. The hospital hopes to administer 1,000 vaccines a day.
This is how it works, according to Huntsville Hospital:
The mass vaccination clinic is by appointment only. You cannot walk up and be vaccinated without an appointment. We will build the expanded schedule from the vaccination requests we are currently receiving through our website at this link: https://www.huntsvillehospital.org/covid-19-vaccination. Anyone coming to the vaccination clinic should bring a photo ID and your insurance information, if you have it. We will not collect any co-payments, and no one will be turned away based on their insurance status.
We will call people to schedule evenly from each category based on when their request was submitted. We already have more requests than we have appointment slots but will continue vaccinating through our regular clinic over the coming weeks and months. We encourage everyone to look for other vaccination sites.
The expanded eligibility criteria effective February 8, 2021, is:
Health care workers
- Anyone age 65 or above
- First responders including EMS, firefighters and law enforcement
- Frontline essential workers as follows:
- Corrections officers
- Food and agriculture workers
- U.S. Postal Service workers
- Manufacturing workers
- Grocery store workers
- Public transit workers
- People who work in the education sector
- Childcare workers
- Judiciary
- Clergy/ministerial
However, hospital officials tell us that the challenge here in the Valley is having enough doses.
The Alabama Department of Public Health announced on Tuesday that it will be launching large-scale drive-thru COVID vaccine clinics in eight Alabama locations, Huntsville being one of them.
"We will use our clinic that we have at John Hunt Park in the Jaycee building to do those vaccines," says Huntsville Hospital CEO, David Spillers.
The clinic will be at John Hunt Park from February 8 through February 12. For this week, Huntsville Hospital said it will be expanding its clinic hours to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The clinic will be by appointment only.
Spillers says the plan is to vaccinate up to two thousand people a day next Monday. "The state is going to make available some additional vaccines to us next week. We're one of the eight sites that will increase the number of vaccines we're getting next week. We anticipate getting around an extra thousand doses a day," says Spillers.
Huntsville, Athens-Limestone and now Decatur-Morgan Hospitals are Pfizer vaccine sites. Spillers says Decatur-Morgan received about 5,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine today.
However there's a bigger shortage of the Moderna vaccine felt here in the Tennessee Valley and nationwide. Moderna is the more widely-used vaccine because of storage requirements.
City of Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle says he spoke with Alabama Department of Public Health State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris about supply.
"He says it's very much done by population. We have 1.5% of the nation's population. We're getting 1.5% of the Moderna and the Pfizer coming in," says Battle.
Madison County EMA Director Jeff Birdwell says based on the supply that's coming in, the county health department only has enough vaccine for second doses.
"There was some discussion this morning as more becomes available, then that may open up appointments earlier. But right now the projected date, conservative date is there will be more appointments that will open up probably the second week of next month," says Birdwell.
Birdwell says the county currently has 68 sites approved for vaccination, but those sites do not have vaccine.
To schedule an appointment with Huntsville Hospital, visit Huntsville Hospital's website. The hospital will call people to schedule the appointment after you register. If you get an appointment, make sure you bring a photo ID and your insurance information if you have it.
During the week of February 8, large-scale COVID vaccine clinics will open in the following cities:
- Anniston
- Birmingham
- Dothan
- Huntsville
- Mobile
- Montgomery
- Selma
- Montgomery
ADPH said the goal of these sites is to give 1,000 vaccines per day during that week with a total of 40,000 doses being administered.
More information regarding specific locations is expected to be released soon.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a plethora of information on how to protect yourself and other from the coronavirus.
The virus can easily spread from person to person, so the CDC recommends you stay at least 6-feet apart from people not in your household. The virus is spread through respiratory droplets that are produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, breaths or talks, according to the CDC. Because of this, the CDC recommends you wear a cloth facemask when around others and in public.
Additionally, the CDC recommends that you frequently wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Symptoms to look out for include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, a sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea, according to the CDC.
Click here to find more COVID-19 information from the CDC.
If you suspect you have the coronavirus, you should seek out testing and self-quarantine.
Click here to find more COVID-19 information from the Alabama Department of Public Health.