DETROIT – The mass vaccination site set up at Ford Field by FEMA has the capacity to vaccinate up to 6,000 people a day.
For the last two days, the facility has not been close to capacity. On Thursday, there were no shows, meaning there was an excess of vaccine doses. FEMA and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services put out the word that if you could get to Ford Field by 6 p.m., they would vaccinate you -- no age restrictions applied.
READ: ‘I want to live’ -- Ford Field vaccine recipients share reasons for getting COVID shot
People hustled to get there and a line of several hundred formed quickly.
“A friend got a text that they were doing COVID vaccines at Ford Field and I was just up the street, " said Michael Cunningham. “I was just talking about how I wanted the shot so I walked over here.”
Whether this will reoccur depends on how many no shows there are going forward.
Watch the full report in the video above.
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Michigan sees virus surge, but tighter restrictions unlikely, Whitmer says
Michigan, which not long ago had one of the country’s lowest COVID-19 infection rates, is confronting an alarming spike that some experts worry could be a harbinger nationally.
In what public health authorities across the U.S. have been warning for months might happen around the country, the resurgence is being fueled by loosened restrictions, a more infectious variant and pandemic fatigue.
While vaccinations in Michigan are helping to protect senior citizens and other vulnerable people, the upswing is driving up hospitalizations among younger adults and forcing a halt to in-person instruction at some schools.