ARLINGTON, Texas — Hope is coming for frontline rescuers in North Texas.
"The hope of the vaccine arriving, it really is a game changer for us. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end and we start seeing some relief from the constant exposures,” said Arlington Fire Department Assistant Chief Gerald Randall.
Frontline workers like firefighters are considered medical responders and are at risk of contracting COVID-19 daily, as they come in contact with many different people.
"They respond to medical calls daily along with our ambulance providers’ medical response,” said Randall.
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Fire departments across Tarrant County are seeing high numbers of COVID-19 cases. In Fort Worth, the fire department has seen nearly 200 positive cases among its personnel and just lost Captain Randy Robinson due to COVID-19 complications. He served for 20 years.
The Arlington Fire Department has had over 60 positive COVID-19 cases and over 100 members of its staff have gone into quarantine due to exposure.
“That’s a big strain on staffing, and not only does that make it a challenge to provide services for citizens daily but with the arrival of the vaccine, hopefully we start to see a turn in that trend and not as many of our people if they do get exposed, they’re not getting sick and we’re able to maintain services within our city,” Randall said.
Now that 3,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the county in the next couple of days, the Arlington Fire Department is preparing for its turn to get inoculated.
The Arlington Fire Department has freezers ready to store the Moderna immunizations at the required temperature of at least -4 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as another freezer which can reach the extremely frigid temperature of -94 degrees Fahrenheit for the Pfizer vaccination. The vaccines are to stay in those freezers until they are moved to refrigerators and eventually taken to the city’s convention center where frontline workers will go get their first dose against the virus.
"We have set up the Arlington convention center with our first allotment of vaccines so we can vaccinate our own first responders and other first responders within Tarrant County,” said Randall.
Due to the size of Tarrant County, the distribution of vaccines for the first phase has been divided between the east and west side. Firefighters and other frontline workers from cities on the east portion of the county such as Arlington, Pantego, Dalworthington Gardens, Hurst, Euless, Bedford and Grapevine will be vaccinated at the convention center.
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Those in the western portion of the county like Fort Worth and surrounding cities will be vaccinated at a different site closer to their area of service.
As they watched their neighboring Dallas County firefighters get the first dose of the vaccine at Parkland Hospital on Wednesday, they feel relief as they will also soon be able to take on their duty with more confidence.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel, and our guys are really excited. They are ringing the phone off the wall ready to get the vaccine,” Randall said.
They’re taking the first step for the rest of the population, getting protected to continue protecting others. Next in line are other frontline workers, such as police officers, who are expected to be included in the second phase of vaccinations coming in the next few weeks.