OKC-County Health Department, Mercy Health To Vaccinate Thousands

The Oklahoma City-County Health Department is partnering with Mercy Health System to vaccinate thousands of older Oklahomans.

“We keep hearing about these different hospital systems that have some really fantastic pod set-ups. They're able to process a lot of people and take care of people. This is just another great example of just this public-private partnership and us working with our partners around the state to get vaccines to Oklahomans,” said Keith Reed, deputy commissioner of health.

The vaccination events will take place on Friday and Saturday. Once the portal went live Tuesday for Friday's slots, it didn't take long for slots to fill up.

Around 95,000 Oklahomans have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The health department said making vaccines available to individuals in Phase 2 of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout are still the top priority.

“We're trying to work through more of our 65 plus, so we don't create unfair competitive advantages for those that may be a little more tech savvy. We don't want our 65 plus that have been so disproportionally impacted kind of pushed to the back of the line if you will,” Reed said.

Commissioner of Health Dr. Lance Frye said there is a rumor that more vaccines may be coming to the state. If that happens, the health department said the boost would allow them to start focusing on other groups.