Eastpointe mayor pushes to get city COVID-19 vaccine site

EASTPOINTE, Mich. (FOX 2) - Eastpointe Mayor Monique Owens said she is worried her city will again become a COVID-19 hotspot as she fights to set up a centralized vaccine site.

"We had a location that was right in the heart of the city. I worked with our local church that was looked at by our director of safety, our fire director to make sure we had ample space and it was safe and secure and we were denied vaccinations at that location," she said.

Owens said the state denied the site.

"Our own councilwoman had to go to Detroit and get a vaccination and that bothered me, and I said we need something right here in our community," she said. "During this virus we need to communicate more as mayors, state reps, county execs, and all the way up to the governor’s office to make sure that each city has what they need to decrease the spread."

Macomb County Deputy Executive Vicki Wolber said they have been doing everything they can, including partnering with SMART to transport people to neighboring cities to get vaccines. Wolber says the line of communication with Eastpointe is still open as is the offer to set up a community vaccination site there. The latter would take some time to get up and running.

"We had 54 deaths a couple of days ago, a couple weeks ago, and now we’re up to five more deaths so I’m doing whatever I can to make sure that we decrease the spread if we can’t stop it," Owens said.

The state said a FEMA mobile vaccine clinic would be held at Eastpointe Montessori on Saturday.