A COVID-19 vaccine event is underway at Hammons Student Center that is now, according to health officials, open to walk-ins. Thursday’s portion of the “mega vaccine” event opened to walk-ins for individuals in tiers 1 to 2. On Friday, any Missouri resident aged 18 or older can get vaccinated until 5 or until the vaccines run out.
Governor Mike Parson said in a press conference kicking off the vaccination event that this week in particular will be monumental in the number of vaccines administered because of these mega vaccine events take place statewide.
"As of today, as of this week, we’ll administer over 300,000 [vaccines] in this week’s time period. So when you see those numbers getting up there around 3 million/4 million in our population, those are good signs that we are winning our battle against COVID-19,” Parson said.
Springfield Mayor Ken McClure said at that event that Springfield is expected to enter the next phase of its pandemic recovery efforts next Friday. Vaccination rates are one of the criteria health officials are keeping a close eye on as they move to lift more COVID-19 restrictions.