METAIRIE, La. — It was 11 months ago today when the phone rang in Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng's office.
“I knew right then. My heart fell in my stomach. I knew what it was,” she recalled Tuesday.
It was the governor's office calling about the first COVID case in Louisiana.
“The first case was a Jefferson Parish resident and that was on March 9. And that was the first case we had in the state,” Lee Sheng said.
Fast-forward to Tuesday morning and Lee Sheng was in a better mood.
Nearly a year into the pandemic, Jefferson Parish leaders are now working to stamp out the virus that caught everyone by surprise.
A mass vaccination event took place at the Alario Center.
Five-hundred open slots filled up fast, and dose after dose went into people's arms.
There were also shots for Cynthia Lee Sheng and some of her staff after Governor John Bel Edwards opened up the vaccination process to members of emergency response teams.
“We know the protection in our community is dependent upon these bigger events,” said Lee Sheng, noting that she wants to do more and larger mass vaccinations as the supply becomes available.
That's something neighboring New Orleans would like to do, but Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the city's health director, says the vaccine supply just can't meet the demand yet.
“The mass drives that are happening now are very splashy, but they just don't have a lot of supply,” she told a City Council committee.
She said that if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets approved soon, things could change by next month.
“That, we hope, will allow us to really open up the criteria, to really have the mass vaccination drives that we want to and that we need to,” she said.
By then, the list of eligible people could also grow, Avegno says, opening up the vaccines to teachers, grocery store workers and other front-line workers who can't get it yet.
“A very large number of folks that are just sort of waiting and chomping at the bit as we all are,” Avegno said.
You can visit covid.jeffparish.net for information about future mass vaccinations in Jefferson Parish. As vaccines are made available, additional days will be added to the schedule.
In New Orleans, you can call 311 to get help making an appointment for a vaccine if you’re eligible right now. Anyone else can call to get their name on a waitlist.
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