Mass vaccination clinic to run daily for 8 weeks at former Gary high school
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The former Gary Roosevelt High School will be the site of an eight-week coronavirus vaccination clinic starting April 7, the White House and Indiana’s governor said Monday.
The clinic will run from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. through June 2. Indiana officials recommended and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) selected the location based on its proximity to a large number of Indiana’s high-risk citizens and medically underserved populations.
“Nearly a million people live within a 30-minute drive of the former Roosevelt High School site, which is in a Medically Underserved Area,” said a fact sheet from the White House. “The majority (approx. 59%) of those 929,000 are minorities. About 15% are aged 65 years or older, and 58,000 households in the area are below the poverty level.”
The Indiana Department of Health, Indiana National Guard, and the Department of Defense will manage the Gary vaccination site with support from FEMA, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the city of Gary, and the Lake County Emergency Management Agency.
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The site will offer first doses of the Pfizer vaccine during the first three weeks of operation. Hoosiers vaccinated during that time frame will be guaranteed a second dose during the fourth, fifth, and sixth weeks of the clinic. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be administered the final two weeks of the operation.
The governor’s office said in a news release that 2,000 vaccine doses will be given daily.
The Gary clinic will be a drive-thru operation but will be accessible to those who come by bus or other modes of transportation.