Mayor Turner, Judge Hidalgo request extension for vaccine clinic at NRG Park

HOUSTON – Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo are requesting an extension of the FEMA supersite at NRG Park.

The COVID-19 vaccination clinic, which opened on Feb. 24, was scheduled to remain at NRG Park for eight weeks. Now, Turner and Hidalgo are asking for the site to remain open through at least May 31.

“On Monday, the eligibility is going to extend to everyone in Houston, Harris County, and across the state of Texas. That mass vaccination site is needed even more so now, so the request is to extend that vaccination site, pretty much indefinitely,” Turner said during a news briefing Wednesday.

READ: NRG Park named a FEMA COVID-19 vaccination super site; Here’s what you need to know

According to Turner and Hidalgo, as of Sunday, 12.1% of the Harris County population ages 16 and over have been fully vaccinated.

“The CVC has successfully enabled the distribution of 6,000 vaccine doses per day, seven days a week, since late February, and has helped to reduce racial and geographic disparities in vaccine distribution in Harris County and the city of Houston,” the letter read, in part.

Turner said as we move into the spring and summer months, people are ready to start getting out more after being away from others for nearly a year.

“The goal is to ramp up, and we’re really going to have to ramp up now since the pool has expanded, you know. It’s now a large pool of people who are eligible to get it, so it’s going to require more supplies, more sites, and more staffing to man those sites in order to meet that growing demand,” Turner said.