Gadsden/Etowah County Emergency Management Agency Director Deborah Gaither said Thursday s COVID-19 vaccination effort went fair, allowing room for improvement in the process.
The agency worked with the Etowah County Health Department in a drive-thru vaccination effort for first responders, health care providers and people 75 or older that administered vaccine to between 450 and 500 people, Gaither told members of the Gadsden City Council on Tuesday.
She said it s important to remember this is the first time anyone involved has participated in a vaccination effort of this scope.
There were long lines that snarled traffic in East Gadsden around The Venue at Coosa Landing, and some people waited in lines for hours with some leaving cars to go for a bathroom break at nearby businesses, or leaving the line entirely if they couldn t leave their car only to be turned away when the supply of vaccine ran out.
A number of first responders took an important step in the battle against COVID-19 on Tuesday, when they received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine at the Etowah County Health Department.
However, the department s nurse supervisor, Jennifer Weeks, cautioned that this is the first step it will take a second dose of the vaccine and a couple of weeks before people should consider themselves protected from the virus. You are not Superman, she said, after this first shot in the arm. You still need to observe all the guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
First responders and health care professionals were lined up outside the health department before the vaccinations were slated to start at 8:30 a.m. Weeks said the department had about 500 doses to distribute.