Vaccine clinics, COVID-19 testing, and flights canceled ahead of weekend snowstorm
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- City and County agencies around Colorado Springs are already delaying or cancelling some events to encourage people to stay safely at home this weekend.
While Southern Colorado is still waiting to learn the full impact of the upcoming weekend snowstorm, UCHealth in El Paso County has already canceled appointments for those who were supposed to get vaccinated this weekend. A spokesperson for UCHealth said in a press release that patients with appointments this weekend do not need to change their appointments themselves. UCHealth will call or send messages to everyone to help them reschedule.
Centura Health is also calling off its mass vaccination clinic at the Broadmoor World Arena. Combined, UCHealth and Centura were anticipated to give a total of 5,000 doses to patients. As for those who were supposed to get their second dose, Dr. William Plauth the Chief Medical Officer at Penrose St. Francis says not to worry.
"More and more we found that you can prolong the second dose out quite significantly and still have the same efficacy there may even be slightly less side effects," Dr. Plauth says.
COVID-19 testing sites in El Paso County will also be closed for the weekend. Mako Medical announcing testing locations at the Citadel Mall, Fountain, Northern Colorado Springs will reopen Monday. The Falcon Peyton area testing site will reopen Tuesday.
If you were planning on flying out of Colorado Springs Airport this weekend, you may want to check your flight status. Dana Schield the public communications specialist with the airport says some flights have already been cancelled.
"I believe we will probably see some more and maybe even some significant delays," Schield says. For those who still plan on traveling, Schield says,"We urge travelers to start checking now especially with the storm like this. There is a chance for early cancellations and continuously check before you leave for the airport."
Airlines like Frontier, American, and United have issued waivers for flyers who want to push back their flights without getting penalized.
Below are links to these airlines with more information.
American: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/travel-alerts.jsp
Untied: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/notices.html
Frontier: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/notices.html
