Minnesota turns Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul into vaccine clinic

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Thousands of teachers and childcare workers in the Twin Cities are ready to line up to get the coronavirus vaccine.

Starting Thursday, Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul is being turned into a pop-up site to get the shots. Over the next five days, they are aiming to get 15,000 doses out.

"We have to have 375 people move through here in an hour in order to hit 3,000 vaccinations each day," said Amanda Frie with the Minnesota Department of Health.

After what is hopefully a short wait, the patient will get checked in and then meet with a nurse at one of the 36 vaccination stations. Each table is already equipped with everything needed aside from the vaccine.

"The nurse will sit here and the patient will sit here," explained Frie. "They’ll be asked a few questions and then they’ll administer the vaccination."

After getting the vaccination the patients will then come into this room here where they will find a chair and then be observed for about fifteen minutes just to make sure that everything is going okay.

"If somebody does have an adverse reaction, we have cots available for them, and kind of a private area for them to start to feel better," Frie added.

National Guard members are assisting health care workers making sure things are running smoothly. But being that this is a pilot program, there could still be a few wrinkles.

"This is a pilot event and we’re going to learn from it and kind of learn as we go," said Frie. "We’ll adapt things as we need to throughout the day tomorrow and throughout the weekend."

Over the next five days, MDH expects to vaccinate 15,000 people and all the patients will return to Roy Wilkins in 28 days for their second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.