Channel 2 gets exclusive look at new massive COVID-19 vaccine site set up by state

ATLANTA — As Gov. Brian Kemp was making the announcement of the state’s new four massive COVID-19 vaccination sites Thursday afternoon, Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne got an exclusive look at the one that has been set up at the Delta Flight Museum near Atlanta’s airport.

The director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency and the top general in the Georgia National Guard say the new mass vaccination sites in Habersham, Fulton, Bibb, and Dougherty counties will be active Monday and are designed to be among Georgia’s busiest.

“Our goal is 1,100 vaccines per site per day, so 4,400 vaccines per day at these sites,” GEMA Director Chris Stallings said. “On the third week we will be working on second doses, so at some point, we will be doing 8,800 vaccines a day at these four sites.”

A member of GEMA took Winne through the facility that has been set up near Atlanta’s airport. Inside the massive tent is an on-site pharmacy and ultracold freezers that will house the vaccine.

The four sites across the state represent a major escalation of the roles Georgia’s lead crisis response agency and its professional warfighters bring to combating the crisis of COVID-19.

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“We’ve mobilized 140 additional service members to the 300 that we’ve already maintained to the COVID-19 response,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden with the Georgia National Guard.

Together, the agencies will fight to get COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of Georgians at a rate few, if any, sites in the state have been able to do so far.

“By the time you enter a line ‘til your sitting in a parking lot to leave is hopefully less than six minutes,” Stallings said.

There will also be a new online registration website for the four appointment-only sites.

“It’s going to be a huge game-changer for Georgia,” Stallings said.

Carden says the guard will play several roles at the four sites, including logistics.

“Our logistical challenges, while certainly a heavy lift, is not as complicated as what we do in a combat environment,” Carden said.

“As more allocation comes along, we can stand up more sites and continue to move forward,” Stallings said.

Stallings said there are other bells and whistles at the facilities that could make the process much simpler for many Georgians to get vaccinated.

To make an appointment once the facilities are up and running, go to the website MyVaccineGeorgia.com.

Gov. Kemp says state is working to finalize next phase of COVID-19 vaccinations

Cox Media Group