Greensboro, NC – The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to open a mass vaccination site in Greensboro next month that can handle up to 3,000 fires a day.
The COVID-19 Community Vaccination Center will open at the Four Seasons Town Center off Highway 40 on March 10 and will operate seven days a week for eight weeks. It is one of the 18 mass websites that FEMA supports nationwide.
The federal government will provide the vaccine to the center, which will be in addition to the weekly North Carolina allocation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Thousands of North Carolinaers will be able to access vaccines as a result of this local, state and federal partnership,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the State Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
The site will have both a drive-thru option in the mall parking lot and a walk-in option in a former Dillard department store.
To reach more marginalized and underserved communities, the main vaccination center will support additional vaccination sites and mobile clinics in communities in need in Guilford County and surrounding areas, officials said.
“This federally-supported vaccine center will help North Carolina make more fires in our arms and help us reach more disadvantaged communities,” Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement.
FEMA and the CDC chose Guilford County for the vaccination site because a number of criteria showed it had significantly insufficient or marginalized populations, officials said.
Programs will be needed for on-site vaccination and will be available through a central system and community partners to ensure access among marginalized populations. Information on the scheduling will be published soon, officials said.
The site will consist of federal personnel, mostly from the Department of Defense. It will be supported with resources and staff from Guilford County, the state Department of Public Safety, including the North Carolina National Guard and the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Two FEMA mass vaccination sites opened in California on February 16 and three more in Texas and two in New York opened this week. Sites are also planned in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
