New COVID-19 mass vaccination site opening in Arlington on Friday

A new COVID-19 mass vaccination site will open in Arlington on Friday, where 21,000 doses are expected to be administered each week.

Arlington is one of three cities receiving help from the federal government to open mass vaccination sites, along with Dallas’ Fair Park site and one at NRG Stadium in Houston.

The Arlington site is a so-called COVID-19 Community Vaccination Center that will operate at Globe Life Field for the next month. The site will then move to AT&T Stadium, according to a city news release.

Both first and second vaccine doses will be administered at the site, which will be open seven days a week. Only people who are registered for a vaccine through Tarrant County Public Health are eligible for a dose.

Helping run the new site are 140 U.S. Marine and sailor personnel from the 1st Marine Logistics group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, deployed from Camp Pendleton, Calif. The aid comes at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Residents seeking a vaccination should register through Tarrant County Public Health’s website. In the early stages of the vaccine rollout, doses are being reserved for frontline health care workers, first responders, people over the age of 65 and people with certain underlying health conditions who are especially vulnerable to the virus, otherwise referred to as groups 1A and 1B.

The new site joins Arlington’s other mass vaccination site located down the road at the Esports Stadium and Convention Center, which is open Monday through Friday. The site administers around 12,000 vaccines a week, and recently administered it’s 50,000th dose.