ARLINGTON (WBAP/KLIF)-The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (HSC) and Tarrant County opened a new COVID-19 vaccination site Wednesday, May 5 at The University of Texas at Arlington.
The site is located in UTA’s Physical Education Building at 801 W. Greek Row Drive. The location expands access to the vaccine to communities in Southeast Tarrant County while also expanding vaccine access at UTA – a university with more than 40,000 students on campus.
People can walk in to receive a dose or choose the day and time of their appointment through the registration portal tarrantcountystrong.com.
“This new vaccine site at UTA is an opportunity to expand access to the COVID-19 vaccine not just to the campus community but in Arlington and southeast Tarrant County,” said Dr. Sylvia Trent-Adams, HSC Chief Strategy Officer. “Collaborations such as this between HSC, Tarrant County and UTA are critical to offering convenient and accessible vaccine locations to historically underserved and hard-to-reach communities.”
The vaccine site opened with a “soft launch” Wednesday and will transition to full volume on Thursday and Friday with an estimated 630 vaccines per day from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. For the next two weeks, this site will maintain that capacity while delivering first doses. Then staff will shift to delivering second doses for three weeks.The site will be closed on Memorial Day.
“As COVID-19 persists, it’s important we continue to increase access to health care and to the vaccine,” said Tarrant County Precinct 2 Commissioner Devan Allen. “Our partnership with UT Arlington helps us do that.”
UTA will offer free parking adjacent to the gym while the site is in operation.
“Having this site on UTA’s campus makes it even more convenient and accessible for our Maverick community to get a COVID-19 vaccine and helps us be of service to the Arlington community,” said Teik C. Lim, UTA’s interim president. “We continue to strongly encourage all Mavericks to get vaccinated so we can provide the safest campus environment possible as we return to on-campus instruction in the fall. I appreciate the collaboration with Tarrant County and HSC to help make our campus safe and healthy.”
The site is part of a collaboration between HSC and Tarrant County to expand access to the vaccine. Three other vaccine sites have already opened at Brighter Outlook Inc., 4910 Dunbar St., a facility operated by the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in southeast Fort Worth, the Saginaw Recreation Center, 633 W. McLeroy Blvd. in northern Tarrant County and Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth.
