KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s largest “mega” vaccination event kicked off Friday in the Kansas City area.
The event took place at Arrowhead Stadium and will continue into the weekend.
Gov. Mike Parson praised the success of the event as well as the progress that the state has made on COVID-19 vaccinations. By the end of the two-day event, up to 8,000 people will be vaccinated, Parson said.
“We are No. 10 in the United States of America for second-dose completions at a rate of 93%, well above the national rate of 88%. Missouri providers have administered nearly 1.9 million total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine,” he said.
The event took place amid criticism that Parson was neglecting urban areas where eligible city residents hadn’t yet been vaccinated.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page expressed his frustration Monday, calling the overall vaccination process a “fumbled” rollout.
“Conversations on vaccine equity should have happened before any distribution plan was executed. And seeing our residents drive several hours to snag an appointment or wait in hopes that there are surplus shots at the end of a vaccination event is no way to provide a service critical to ending a pandemic,” Page said.
In his speech at Arrowhead, Parson responded to the criticism.
“Everyone needs to realize, when it comes to St. Louis and Kansas City, it’s going to be a longer process simply because the populations are so large. As we’re able to move vaccines, we can put more vaccines in these cities. This is the plan we had in place since day one,” Parson said.
Similar to Kansas City’s event, St. Louis plans to host a “mega” vaccination event next week.
The event will be held Thursday-Friday, March 25-26, at the Forest Park campus of St. Louis Community College. The event will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, and organizers say up to 3,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be available each day.
In addition to the “mega” event, there are three other mass vaccination events coming to the St. Louis area next weekend. Nearly 14,000 people are expected to be vaccinated at state-supported events over the three-day period.
For more information about state vaccination events and to sign up, click here. Information and sign-up for next weekend's events will be published there when they become available.