‘It’s bittersweet’: Rock Hill community’s mass vaccination clinic shuts its doors

ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Rock Hill community mass vaccination clinic closed its doors Friday afternoon after being open for 59 days with 1,600 volunteers and more than 50,000 shots administered.

City employees along with Piedmont Medical Center started giving the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 22 in an abandoned store at the Rock Hill Galleria.

At that time, one provider in the entire county was giving the vaccine.

Department of Health and Environmental Control member Rick Lee said he remembers how everything came together quickly.

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“We knew if we wanted to get a lot of people vaccinated,” Lee said. “We had to do it ourselves. The city got this building together in just four days.”

The clinic got its supply of Pfizer shots from Piedmont Medical Center, and it took off once the vaccine became available. At one point, the clinic was giving more than 1,200 shots a day.

Most of the people were volunteers who gave their time to do paperwork, check people in, manage crowds and answer phones. Other volunteers, who were medically trained, administered the vaccine.

[PAST COVERAGE: Dedicated volunteers work tirelessly to administer shots at large Rock Hill clinic]

John Teague, of Charlotte, was one of the volunteers. He was looking for an opportunity to help with the vaccine effort in Charlotte but struck out. Instead, he started driving to Rock Hill to volunteer.

“I signed up, came down one day and really fell in love with the place,” Teague said.

While the clinic has been a model of success and community partnership, vaccine numbers are not what state health leaders hoped for.

As of Thursday, 60,416 people in York County have been fully vaccinated. There are 212,248 people over age 15 in the county, which is 28% of the population. That is lower than the statewide number of 35%.

The county will keep helping people, because it is moving to the City Operations Center on Anderson Road. Volunteers will no longer be needed to run it, and you can still make an appointment. It will still operate from Tuesday through Friday each week.

[Volunteers needed: New mass vaccination site opens at Galleria Mall in Rock Hill]

Lee said it’s just the beginning of the fight against COVID-19, and the virus isn’t going away but neither is the vaccine.

“It’s a continuing battle. It’s not over. But we did achieve a lot of things. We did give most people back their lives,” he said.

On Friday in a much less crowded and chaotic clinic, volunteers and city staff hugged and signed a banner with Rock Hill’s logo that will likely hang in city hall.

“It’s bittersweet because we have great memories here, and we’ve helped a whole lot of people,” city spokeswoman Katie Quinn said.