MACON, Ga. — The mass COVID-19 vaccination site in Macon will be open and operating starting Monday morning. The governor and other public officials toured the facility on Eisenhower Parkway Friday.
GEMA, FEMA, the National Guard, and nurses were all working hard to get things ready to open Monday at 8 a.m.
Beginning Monday, there will be over a thousand people going through this facility to be vaccinated, according to GEMA Director Chris Stallings.
The facility is completely drive thru from start to finish. 13WMAZ got a tour and drove through the setup. Here's how it works.
You have to pre-register online at myvaccinegeorgia.com.
Then, you'll get an email between 24 to 48 hours to schedule the actual appointment.
Next, you'll get a QR code that you can either show on your mobile device or print out.
On the day of your appointment, you'll show your QR code at the Farmers Market to the staff.
"That's where we verify all the information, verify they don't have any underlying conditions that would be a concern for the vaccine," said GEMA field coordinator Jason Ritter, who is the site manager.
Once you're cleared, you'll drive on through to get the vaccine. Ritter says there will be two lines of traffic through this area of the Farmer's Market. There are 4 tents set up -- two on each side.
"We can vaccinate 8 people at a time. Technically speaking, we could vaccinate 8 people per minute in a perfect world, but it may be a little more than that depending on how many people in the cars getting vaccinated. Any questions they may have. Whatever the case may be," Ritter said.
Then, you'll drive to your last stop before leaving the site. Health workers will monitor you for 15 to 30 minutes.
"Just to make sure there's no adverse effects to the vaccine before they're released for leave," Ritter said.
Right now, GEMA says they will schedule up to 1,100 appointments per site per day. GEMA Director Chris Stallings says in three weeks, the state will begin scheduling for second doses o they'll increase the maximum appointment slots to 2,200 per day.
Governor Brian Kemp says this is just the beginning of the state's effort to vaccinate as many people as possible through mass vaccination sites.
"We have more supply from the federal government which as I continue to say every day we have much more demand than we have supply at this moment. But we know there is going to be a day in the weeks ahead that we will get that supply and be able to even expand this site," Kemp said.
Another thing to reiterate is you have to have an appointment. You can't just drive up and roll up your sleeve.
In fact, Governor Kemp noted people were showing up to the facility Friday trying to get vaccinated, instead staff helped them to pre-register online.
Ritter confirmed health workers there will administer the Pfizer vaccine. Pfizer must be kept in ultra-cold storage so the logistics of distribution have been tricky since rollout back in December.
Ritter says they have an ultra-cold freezer on site. He says it's monitored 24 hours a day by the Georgia National Guard.
"Making sure that it stays at the temperature, different checks they have to do every so often, and then every morning, our pharmacist will move it out of the ultra cold, move it to where it needs to be to be ready for the vaccines at the appointment times," Ritter said.
For more information, you can call 844-274-9841.