Pueblo vaccination clinic expansion: goal is to vaccinate 6,000 a day
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- A newly proposed plan to expand the the vaccination clinic in Pueblo County is currently underway, with lofty goals.
The Pueblo County Health Department and the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office have been in talks with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and FEMA to expand on the mass vaccination clinic located in the Pueblo Mall parking lot.
So far more than 22,000 Puebloans have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. At its most efficient, the mass vaccination clinic in Pueblo County was able to get more than 1,600 vaccine doses in arms in a single day.
"The state wants to come down, and they want to increase the amount of doses we are putting in arms," said Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor on Friday. "They'll make us a regional center, what they are calling a pod."
According to Taylor, state health officials want to vaccinate 6,000 people a day out of the regional pod in Pueblo County. However, that is the ultimate goal, and the facility likely will start closer to 3,000 people per day.
"[Right now] we're limited by the state giving us vaccines," said Taylor. "In this scenario, if the state were to come down and build it out to 3,000 a day, they would guarantee they would have the vaccine. So I think it is a win-win for our community."
In order to expand, the current vaccination clinic will have to move. Sheriff Taylor and Pueblo County Health Director Randy Evetts tell KRDO they are looking at moving the vaccination clinic to the COVID-19 Testing Site at the Colorado State Fairgrounds. Then moving the testing site to the Pueblo Mall vaccination clinic location.
The new space will help with the higher volume of people looking to get vaccinated.
The regional vaccination pod would be overseen by local health officials, however, the site itself will be run by employees hired by the state. Similar to how Pueblo County's COVID-19 testing site at the fairgrounds operates.
Sheriff Taylor and Evetts say the state would bring around 290 people down to Pueblo to run the vaccination pod, which will free up Health Department employees currently working at the Pueblo Mall vaccination clinic.
"We don't want to lose the local control that we've established, and we won't," said Taylor. "We will have some key people still inputted within the pods if they come to fruition. So I think that's a good thing."
The regional vaccination pod in Pueblo County won't just serve the people living in Pueblo County. Sheriff Taylor says this pod would vaccinate people outside of the county as well.
Taylor and Evetts say the goal is to open the expanded clinic by March 22.
