The Track and Tennis Center will host a mass vaccination clinic Wednesday April 21. Calvin has more than 350 doses of the Moderna vaccine currently available and the ability to acquire more. Students can sign up for the clinic through a form on Calvin’s website.

If all slots are filled on Wednesday, more than half the student body will have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, according to a CRT update email sent out on April 19.

The clinic will be staffed by Health Services staff, as well as volunteer nursing students and faculty. According to Dr. Laura Champion, medical director of Health Services, dozens of nursing students have signed up to help administer vaccines.

Students who receive their first dose of the Moderna vaccine on the 21st will be eligible to receive their second dose on May 19—just after finals end. “We hope we can get as many students vaccinated before they leave for home as are interested and willing,” Phil de Haan, communications coordinator for the COVID Response Team, told Chimes. “So the earlier the better in order to get the second dose here as well.”

According to De Haan, students can take the opportunity to get the first dose on campus even if the timing is off for receiving their second dose, since they can arrange to receive a second dose through their home healthcare providers. “It’s better to get one dose in, which gives a certain level of immunity by itself, as soon as possible, given the transmission happening in Michigan.” De Haan said. “Every bit helps limit the transmission going forward, which helps us get to lower and lower levels…and more and more normalcy.” Michigan has been averaging more than 4,000 new confirmed cases daily, according to the state’s online tracker.

Based on completed vaccination reporting forms (available here), de Haan said “literally hundreds and hundreds” of Calvin students are already vaccinated. “This is encouraging to us as we strive for the herd immunity that will help us in the fall,” de Haan said.

De Haan encouraged students to get the vaccine wherever they can, but reiterated that it is “highly available” at Calvin and DeVos Place and that sooner is better when it comes to helping “diffuse the higher transmission rates in the community.”