A pop-up clinic to vaccinate a swath of Port Coquitlam residents whose city has been hit hard by COVID-19 brought a surge of vaccine-hopefuls to Coquitlam’s Poirier Forum Tuesday.
By noon, a line-up to get a shot stretched several blocks, prompting at least one resident to give up.
A man who spoke to the Tri-City News said he wasn’t going to stand in line for what could be a long time to get vaccinated with Astra Zeneca. “I drove up and turned around,” he said.
Some area residents, meanwhile, are upset about the clinic bringing problems to their streets: Parking and traffic problems are among the main complaints, with at least one resident calling for a traffic management and parking plan for the clinic.
“In looking out my window and driving through the area today, it's a total mess. There's a lineup of people going around the block, and cars parked all over the side streets. In driving to my home, it was incredibly dangerous because people were darting across the street to get in line, and cars were jack-knifed into spots,” stated one Coquitlam resident in an email to the Tri-City News.
PARKING PLAN SOUGHT FOR POIRIER NEIGHBOURHOOD IF DROP-IN CLINICS CONTINUE
The resident said if Fraser Health is going to schedule a major clinic it should have a traffic and parking plan in place.
“Holy smokes, it’s just a complete mess,” he later told the Tri-City News, adding, “The amount of cars that are coming and going here is not what this area was designed for,” and that while the clinic has been open for several weeks, traffic had been “completely manageable” up until today.
He said he felt sorry for people trying to get their jabs. “They’re lucky it isn’t raining,” he said.
The scramble for vaccinations comes amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus. While case numbers have dropped slightly, concerns about more transmissible variants have prompted the province to target areas of concern.
Port Coquitlam has been identified as a “high-transmission neighbourhood” for COVID-19 and residents 30 years and older have been prioritized for AstraZeneca shots.
On Tuesday, some residents in the Fraser Health region were contacted by their doctor to show up for the clinic at Poirier and some people put the word out on Facebook.
By noon, Fraser Health sent out a press release confirming the vaccination opportunity.
“Fraser Health is asking all eligible people to get vaccinated and do not delay,” the press release stated, adding that getting a shot “brings us one step closer to reconnecting with the people we care about, returning to the activities we enjoy while protecting our health system and helping businesses in our community return to normal operations.”
But as crowds descend on the Poirier Forum, it's not clear how the long lines will discourage more people from turning home.
FRASER HEALTH ANNOUNCES DROP-IN CLINIC
According to Fraser Health, the drop-in clinic at 618 Poirier St. will be open until 7 p.m.
On Monday, there was also a long line-up for people to get shots at the same Poirier clinic, but Fraser Health has yet to confirm who was being targeted for the clinic.
There are 16 high-transmission neighbourhoods in B.C., but Port Coquitlam is the only city in the Tri-Cities declared a hot zone for COVID-19.
The city is grappling with the virus, which has shown up in several schools recently, with some schools hit with multiple exposures, and some local businesses, including a real estate office, was closed for 10-days by Fraser Health due to transmission.
