Convention Center 2nd-dose vaccine clinic will open to some walk-ins

As the frustration of residents intensified, the Southern Nevada Health District on Thursday lifted its requirement for appointments at its Las Vegas Convention Center site dedicated to administering second doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents, especially those 70 and older, have increasingly expressed frustration and fury at being unable to book their second doses through the district’s website due either to the site crashing or the speed at which appointments have filled up.

To make way for walk-ins, the district said in an afternoon news release that it had canceled first-dose appointments at the convention center — appointments that should never have been scheduled there in the first place.

It also said it had notified people who’d made the appointments of the cancellations. The district identified them through vaccination records, district representative Jennifer Sizemore said in an email. Sizemore could not immediately provide a number for how many appointments had been canceled or how many walk-ins would be taken.

As a result of the cancellations, the district said it would be able to give second doses to eligible walk-ins for the next four weeks. However, just showing up is no guarantee of getting that second dose.

“Patients will be served based on vaccine availability,” the release states.

The announcement was welcome news for 74-year-old Henderson resident Ira Kleiman, who said he would be “delighted” to show up at the convention center on the day he is due for a second dose after “appointment purgatory, waiting endlessly for a nonexistent slot.”

“I hope you are not taking this issue as entitled, geriatric impatience,” he said. “For people my age who haven’t hugged their loved ones in a year and who have sheltered for that long, the protection of the second shot is a lifeline.”

He expressed some skepticism, though, wondering whether he would witness a four-hour line of older people in walkers and wheelchairs.

“I’m just a little bit suspicious at this point, depending on their system for managing what may be a flooded system,” he said.

Who is eligible

The only people currently eligible as walk-ins are those who received their first dose of Moderna vaccine between Jan. 4 and 9. The recommended time frame for the second dose of the Moderna vaccine is four weeks after the first, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the interval can be as long as six weeks.

The district will be taking only those walk-ins who got their first doses at these sites or events: the health district on Decatur Boulevard, Cashman Center, Western High School, Jerome Mack Middle School and vaccination events hosted by Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Touro University.

“Second dose vaccine supplies are received based on the number of first doses administered, and the Health District has the capacity to vaccinate everyone who received their first dose at one of its clinics,” the release states.

People who received the vaccine from another provider or received the Pfizer vaccine are not eligible to get a walk-in second dose, the health district said. Sizemore said it did not have a date to provide at this time for when those who received the Pfizer vaccine would be eligible.

The convention center site is open Tuesday through Saturday, and eligible walk-ins will be accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., or until vaccine doses run out.

The vaccination site is off of Paradise Road at Convention Center Drive in the C-1 area of the Central Hall.

The health district is continuing to email an appointment link to those who registered with it and provided an email address. Others can use the publicly available link: snhd.info/get-vaccine/lvccc.

The news release urged people with questions or who need assistance making appointments to call the health district at 702-759-1900. The line is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.