The long-awaited COVID-19 vaccination clinics at the Fischer Theatre get underway today.
600 Vermilion County residents will receive either their first dose of the vaccine or their second dose at the historic downtown Danville theater, located at the corner of Harrison and Vermilion streets. 30 people will be scheduled for vaccinations every 15 minutes.
Melissa Rome, the Emergency Planning and Response Coordinator at the Vermilion County Health Department, which is hosting the clinic, explains how the site will run.
“They’ll walk into the gift shop and cut around the corner, and then they’ll have a greeter, and if you have all of your paperwork filled out, you’ll get a number,” she says. “If you don’t, then you go to a couple of tables and fill out your paperwork, and then you get a number. You get called, you get vaccinated. You get taken into the theater area–the auditorium–and you get your little timer, and whenever it dings then you get out of there.”
Rome says that everyone will be on the main level of the building, other than the mezzanine level, which will be used by emergency personnel for observation purposes.
Not all 600 people will be inside the Fischer at one time, as vaccinations are being spread out throughout the entire day. Rome says only a few people will be inside the building at any given time.
Theater Director Jason Rome, who is Melissa Rome’s husband, says the clinics are a good use of the building, since it would not normally be occupied during the day. He also says that the Fischer is joining other historic movie houses across the country in offering space for such events.
“We’re offering our facility at no cost,” he explains. “This is purely for the public good. We’re a charity. I can’t think of a better reason to deploy our resources to something for the county and our community, just because it’s the right thing to do.”
Public parking is available on the street downtown in Danville, and also in lot northwest of the theater, another south of the Wolford Hotel and another large lot on the west side of Walnut Street.
Those being vaccinated will also be asked to fill out extra questions for the consent form, as the state has recently mandated that respondents answer questions relating to one’s racial status.
