A new mass vaccination clinic will open at the old Gander Mountain Store in Woodbridge on Tuesday.
The site is designed to serve an area struggling to get people vaccinated. Sean Johnson, of the Prince William Health District, says the clinic in the old Gander Mountain store will eventually be equipped to give 6,000 shots every day.
Johnson said they are starting with 3,000 shots a day.
Prince William's Health District is lagging behind the rest of Northern Virginia in vaccine rollout per capita. And like the rest of Virginia, the county is struggling to vaccinate people of color.
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The local NAACP branch says the mass clinic will help, but they need to get people there. Cozy Bailey, of the Prince William NAACP, said they plan to work with faith-based communities to solve the transportation issue.
"Many of the churches have their own transportation in the form of vans and buses and, as I've spoken with the different pastors, they intend to utilize those," Bailey said.
For now, the mass clinic is by appointment only, and the health district will contact people who are pre-registered. But that scheduling process isn't working for Karen Wilson, a medical assistant who got her first dose in Prince William more than a month ago.
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"I've called them probably ten times asking when I can schedule my second dose and they don't have an answer for me," Wilson said.
The CDC says second doses must be given within 42 days of the first. For Wilson, that window closes on Friday.
"They'd be wasting that first dose that I had, if I don't get my second dose," Wilson said.
The Prince William Health District said they haven't heard of someone going this long without getting a second dose appointment. The health district reminds residents that they should get their second vaccine shot wherever they got the first one.
