Brazos Center vaccine hub expected to shift operating hours later this month
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The Brazos Center hub is set to administer 1,100 extra first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week while officials are expected to at least tweak the hours of operation beginning the week of April 12.
For the upcoming week beginning April 5, it’s back to traditional operations for the hub. First doses will be administered inside the building for the first half of the week, while second doses will be given out in the drive-thru to close out the second half. The hub is adding more appointments during their standard operating hours throughout the first half of the week to accommodate the extra 1,100 doses they received from DSHS.
But changes to when Brazos residents can get their shots are on the horizon.
“We want to be as user-friendly as possible,” Brazos County COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force Chief Jim Stewart said. “I know there’s still pent-up demand out there. Part of it is the inability to get in at times when we’ve been open.”
To fix those issues, Stewart says the hub will operate at later hours to better accommodate those who have conflicting schedules.
“Starting the week of the 12th, we’re going to start later in the day and go into the early evening,” Stewart said. “I’m not sure if we’re going to do it every day.”
Stewart says the hub would most likely operate from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on those days. He also says there are plans in the works to offer Saturday appointments and see how it goes, and potentially reserve an afternoon for drop-ins.
But drop-ins are being offered for a select few as early as Monday.
“If there are still people out there who are 80 and above and need the vaccine, they don’t need an appointment, they don’t need to do anything,” Stewart said. “All they have to do is show up. We’ll put them right in the front of the line and get them processed and through there.”
Stewart says he and his team are still making progress in reaching the county’s underserved communities. He says 200 of this week’s first doses have been set aside for another mini-hub that will be set up Saturday, April 10 at the St. Joseph High School athletic facility. Another mini-hub will also serve the Carver-Kemp community on April 17.
The hub is also trying to find more ways to make up the disparities in who is accessing the vaccine. Whites are still the only ethnic group in the county that account for a greater proportion of vaccinations as compared to their percentage of the population. All other ethnic groups are well below the threshold for their share of the county’s population.
“Is it where we want it to be? No,” Stewart said. “My commitment from the get-go was that if you’re willing to get the injection, I’m going to get it in your arm. If it requires us to come to you, then that’s what we’re going to do. If you can’t get to the hub, that’s okay. We’d prefer that because that makes it easier on us, but if we have to take it to the community, we will certainly do that.”
Stewart says he is currently in discussion with another Bryan company to set up what will be their 4th mini-hub once the details are finalized. He says the specifics will be forthcoming.
After roughly eight weeks since opening the Brazos Center as a vaccination hub for the county (nine if you count the week the winter storms postponed an entire week of appointments), nearly one-third (31%) of the county’s total population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. A vast majority of those shots have been administered through the hub.
“Would I be more comfortable if more people were knocking down our door? I would be,” Stewart said. “But what the state’s giving us to administer, we’re successfully doing that. We’ve done over 60,000 shots since January 28, and the next goal is to do 100,000.”
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