The line at a vaccine clinic at Triangle North Airport in Franklin County has caused traffic jams and discouraged people from getting the vaccine.
The video from Sky 5 showed the line of cars stretching at least a mile on the nearby road, causing congestion and frustration.
Several people posted complaints on social media or called WRAL while they were still waiting in line.
A couple, who said they had an appointment set for 9:30 a.m., said they had been queuing for several hours – only for a deputy to direct traffic to advise them to leave and then return in two hours. .
Michael McDowell, who was also waiting in the long queue, said the wait was so bad that he came back and left.
A message on Facebook read: “Currently at the Louisburg drive-thru vaccination site. They didn’t start until 10 in the morning, and the line was already 2 miles back from the airport at 9:45. “
Registration information from the vaccine organizers reads: “Only those who received confirmation by phone or e-mail with the date, time and location of tomorrow’s clinic can participate” and that only “people aged 65 and older and senior health care workers who have completed the admissible registration process. “
Franklin County Health Director Scott LaVigne plans to review how he spent the day learning from it. He also intends to contact the Wake County Health Director about how he could coordinate efforts in the future.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a lot of people come from Wake County and other surrounding counties for this event,” LaVigne said. “It simply came to our notice then [the line]. We want to be good neighbors. “
LaVigne says that despite the wait, the operations went quite smoothly. A total of 1,510 patients were vaccinated on Thursday before they had to start removing people around 3 p.m.
“At one point, I had 234 [patients] in an hour that passed, “LaVigne explained.” It’s phenomenal. “
Despite organizing the event with recordings and appointments, the long queues and waiting times seemed to cause many people to miss programming hours – even discouraging some people from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine today.
But LaVigne is confident in the county’s ability to make adjustments to the number of patients, while executing the distribution efficiently.
“If we have the vaccine … we’ll go through our process and get you on the road. That’s what we want to do, that’s what we’re really good at,” LaVigne said.
He says he will seek to coordinate with the Wake County Health Department for the next round of vaccines at this location.
“We were not prepared for the mass migration, for lack of a better word, of the people who came out to [this] location here today, “LaVigne said.” I sent an email to the health director of Wake County. I want to make sure we pool our resources … so we can better coordinate things. “