The Music City Center was never needed as a pandemic overflow hospital, as once feared. But it will be used as Nashville’s centralized mass vaccination site, in the hope that the city will eventually get enough COVID-19 vaccine to make use of its 2.1 million square feet of space.
The announcement was made at Thursday’s weekly COVID briefing and takes effect for this weekend’s scheduled vaccination of residents 75 and over, although seniors who need their second dose will still be directed to the same place they received the first.
The Metro Public Health Department has been using a small site in East Nashville as well as the Lentz Public Health Center. But neither has a covered parking area.
Vaccine is still available only by appointment (here), so the city discourages anyone from just showing up.
Dr. Gill Wright, the city’s interim health chief, is making another plea for patience. He says there’s no need to try to sign up again and that everyone will be contacted eventually.
That’s not to say there’s nowhere else to get the vaccine. Meharry Medical Group is running its own vaccinations. The health department has also started distributing vaccine to a dozen low-income clinics like Siloam Health, which will each have their own appointment systems.
Right now, the combined efforts in Davidson County are administering about 7,000 vaccines per week. Local public health officials say they could easily handle three or four times as many.
In total, roughly 40,000 Nashville residents have begun vaccinations, with about 16,000 of them also receiving their second doses.
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