200 COVID-19 doses administered at El Centro vaccination event

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - After waiting months for a COVID-19 vaccine a local medical provider setting up another vaccination site in the Imperial Valley. Many people had the chance to get their shot Saturday morning.

This is Imperial Valley Family Care Medical Group’s first vaccine event in El Centro.

Team members and doctors were able to administer 200 first doses to the community.

The healthcare company has been serving the valley for 25 years and now during the pandemic, the staff is working even harder to make sure locals are protected.

Cars packed the parking lot as they waited for the Moderna shot.

Due to the technicalities of the Moderna vaccine, medical professionals need to let the vials thaw out for at least two hours - making for a long process to ensure it's ready to go.

Dr. Unnati Sampat thinks it's worth it.

“We’ve been waiting for quite some time we applied in January and now we have them finally.” Dr. Sampat said.

William Hopson is the CEO of Imperial Valley Family Care Medical Group.

“We very much fall in line kind of with the state level from Governor Newsom talking about the health care and equity we fit that model we know the valley has been adversely impacted as this community has been by COVID, and at the same time too. We hope to get more access to vaccines to be able to take care of our community that's been disproportionately affected,” Hopson explained.

The family care group will host a second event to administer the 200 second doses.

The CEO tells News 11, they’ve applied for additional allocations so they can continue vaccinating not only their patients but the rest of the community.

Coming up Saturday night at 10 on News 11 and CBS 13 - doctors out there share their thoughts on the development of a booster dose to fight off new variants of the virus.