While school is out for the summer, some in Fort Worth are staying busy as they host pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics.
The sites are through a partnership between Fort Worth ISD, the University of North Texas Health Science Center (HSC) in Fort Worth, and Tarrant County. The vaccines are open to students, staff, the family members, as well as the rest of the community.
Jessica Rangel, Senior Vice-President of Clinical Innovation at HSC Fort Worth, said the pop-up sites are an opportunity to reach as many school-aged children before another school year starts again.
“When everyone goes back to school, they’ll be in enclosed spaces together, eating lunch together, on the playground together and often times, it’s easier to transmit those things in an enclosed environment,” Rangel said. “Getting to the children and the school-age children this summer is very, very important because this fall, we don’t know what it’s going to look like. We don’t know what the delta variant is going to do or what other variants might come into play.”
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One of the pop-up sites this week is being held at Riverside Middle School in Fort Worth, where Carlos Ventura is a student. He was accompanied by his mother as he received his first dose Wednesday.
“This year’s been different, you know? Difficult,” Ventura said, referring to the past school year. “I used to get scared like to get shots, you know? Yeah, I’m not scared anymore.”
Ventura said it is his hope that getting vaccinated will mean a faster return to a pre-pandemic world.
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“I expect everything to go back to normal,” he said.
Though registrations are preferred, walk-ups are welcomed at the sites.
Scheduled pop-up sites this week:
June 23 and 24, 11am-7pm:
Riverside Middle School: 1600 Bolton Street, Fort Worth, TX 76111
June 24 and 25, 9am-5pm:
Rosemont Middle School: 1501 W. Seminary Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76115
