GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cone Health is closing more vaccine sites across the Triad. On Thursday, June 24th, the clinic at Zion Baptist Church in Reidsville will shut down. The sites at the Greensboro Coliseum and Burlington Manufacturers’ Outlet Center will close on July 31st.
Since the start, Cone Health has administered 76,987 first doses of vaccines, 77,580 second doses of vaccines and have tested more130,000 patients at their fixed and mobile sites, according to a spokesperson. Now, fewer people are making appointments.
"At the beginning, for the first few months, we were doing close to 2000 people per day at the Greensboro Coliseum," David Thompson, the assistant director at Cone’s Regional Center for Infectious Disease, said. "Now, first doses sometimes it’s 100, total doses, first and second, sometimes we’re only seeing like 200 to 300 people a day. Now we’re focused on, 'Well, let’s go to where people live and work,' and that’s why we have the mobile effort going out because it just doesn’t make sense to keep that huge center open to only do 200 or so people a day."
In addition to a decreasing demand, Thompson said they want to mirror the health departments they partner with in closing their larger sites. Instead, they want to focus on meeting people where they are.
"We’re also looking at setting up a location in each county," Thompson said. "So we’ve had our mobile team that’s been going out to churches, community centers and businesses, and we’re going to continue to do that, but we’re looking to set up a permanent, kind of a fixed mobile location so every week there would be one day for anyone to get a vaccine at this site."