Citing a decline in demand and the start of mobile vaccinations, a COVID-19 testing and vaccine site operated by the Parkland Health and Hospital System has permanently closed.
The Dallas College-Eastfield Campus site along Motley Drive in Mesquite officially stopped its operations on Saturday evening. Since the opening of the site in August 2020, Parkland has administered 38,000 COVID-19 tests and 54,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines at the location.
Francesco Mainetti is Parkland’s Vice President of Transformational Initiatives.
“The success of this site took long days and nights, but our staff handled it very well. They were out there in the heat and the cold making sure Dallas County residents were taken care of,” Mainetti said in a press release. “The closure of this site is a new beginning. We hope to make the process of getting a COVID-19 vaccination even easier by bringing the vaccines to the community through mobile vaccination clinics.”
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
According to Dallas County Judge Clay Judge Clay Jenkins, about 53% of eligible Dallas County residents have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. The county’s lease with Fair Park expires in August, Judge Jenkins said.
The plan right now is to stop operations at Fair Park on August 1, so the park can start preparing for the Texas State Fair.
“Right now, we still have thousands of people showing up every day. We are preparing to shrink that down as the numbers go down,” Jenkins said Saturday. “But it’s still a great site with thousands of people showing up.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
People over the age of 12 can receive their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine without an appointment at the following locations operated by Parkland:
• Ellis Davis Field House, 9191 S. Polk St., Dallas, 75232 between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday – Saturday.
• Parkland Memorial Hospital, 5200 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, 75235 between 10 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday or between 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
