Oklahoma County and Tulsa County will soon be home to large-scale coronavirus vaccine sites known as mega-PODs.
The Oklahoma City-County Health Department and Tulsa Health Department announced separately Thursday they are working with The White House to create mass vaccination sites in the state's two most populous counties. Officials have been calling their vaccine clinics PODs, or points of dispensing sites.
Dr. Patrick McGough, OCCHD's executive director, said the partnership will create what is known as a mega-POD.
"This POD in partnership with the state of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the National Guard will have the capacity to vaccinate up to 6,000 individuals per day in [Oklahoma] County. And this will be for six to seven days a week," said McGough.
Those doses will come from the federal government and supplement the state's existing allotment. The timeline, sites and other details are still developing.
"We're really excited we've been chosen for this," said Tulsa Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart.
McGough also said he expects pharmacies will start getting vaccines to distribute themselves as early as next week and that the Oklahoma State Department of Health will soon make an announcement on how it will define comorbidities in Phase 2.
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