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CORONAVIRUS IN DELAWARE

Delaware COVID-19 vaccine event at Dover International Speedway could be model for future clinics

Brandon Holveck
Delaware News Journal

In the shadows of Dover International Speedway, Delaware on Sunday began its largest COVID-19 vaccination event to date, a six-day drive-thru clinic that represents a possible blueprint for future vaccine distribution in the state and region.

About 1,500 health care workers and people 65 and older were scheduled to be vaccinated with second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on Sunday, officials said. Over the next five days, the event will have the capacity to vaccinate 3,000 people per day, officials said.

The Dover speedway event is the first in the region operated by a state government in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It started a day later than originally planned because the extreme winter weather across the country last week affected travel for federal personnel.

The weather also has delayed Delaware's latest vaccine shipment, but officials expect the event will have enough supply.

The Delaware State News reported Dover International Speedway is holding a drive-thru vaccination event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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After training staff Saturday and conducting a "dress rehearsal" Saturday night, the event opened at half-capacity Sunday as a "dry run," Delaware Emergency Management Director AJ Schall said.

The event appeared to be running smoothly Sunday morning. Its five vaccination stations rarely had a line of more than a few cars. The longest part of the process was the 15-minute observation period, in which recipients remained in their cars on-site to monitor for an immediate adverse reaction after receiving the vaccine.

Those who were vaccinated were pleased with the process, they said, starting with scheduling an appointment through the state's new online system last week to ending Sunday crisscrossing through dozens of orange cones to be vaccinated.

"I think that this is going to be a very good way to get everyone vaccinated," said Stacy Diehl, who received her second dose Sunday and previously volunteered at a vaccine site at the Delaware City Division of Motor Vehicles, about a 90-minute drive from her Fenwick Island home. "This is the beginning of the end."

Roseanne Donofrio of Smyrna, Del., receives the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during the first day of a six-day vaccination event at Dover International Speedway.

After waiting for about four hours for her first dose at the Delaware City event in January, Roseanne Donofrio of Smyrna was in and out of the Dover speedway in about 30 minutes.

Donofrio is looking forward to moving "more freely" and seeing friends once her immunity fully kicks in two weeks from Sunday.

She said she and her daughter, Rosemarie Eaker, who drove her on Sunday, are hoping to be able to visit her husband soon. He has spent the previous five months in a rehabilitation center for an injury.

"It's been very challenging for everyone," Eaker said.

Now in the third month of its vaccine rollout, Delaware is seeing the number of cases and hospitalizations reported each day plummet to levels unseen since before Thanksgiving.

Over the past week, the state averaged 253.4 cases per day, its lowest weekly average since Nov. 9. Entering Sunday, Delaware had administered more than 175,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, including nearly 47,000 second doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

State officials have remained consistent with their messaging, urging practices like mask-wearing and social distancing to continue as vaccine distribution ramps up.

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Although Delaware ranks among the nation's leaders in getting vaccines out the door, less than 5% of residents have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Schall, the emergency management director, said large-scale drive-thru clinics similar to the Dover speedway event likely will play a significant role in getting Delawareans in future phases of the state's vaccine plan vaccinated.

He said he envisions staging large events for specific essential worker groups like poultry plant workers who are among the next in line for the vaccine.

People in phase 1A and people 65 and older line up to receive the second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines during the first day of a six-day vaccination event at Dover International Speedway.

Schall said the approach will need to be "layered" with opportunities that are smaller in scale for people in difficult-to-reach communities and those who can't travel to a central location like Dover.

Timothy Pheil, a coordinating officer for FEMA, said the Dover clinic will inform the agency's best practices at future events, including a clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia that is expected to vaccinate 6,000 people per day early next month.

The Biden administration deployed the federal agency last month to assist state governments that requested help standing up vaccination centers. State officials had previously been left on their own to distribute the vaccine.

"The demand signal is high across the region for the fed to provide support to states," Pheil said. "We can't do it without [the states]."

Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.