View Larger Image UAMS is closing its COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at the Monroe Building at 4 p.m. Friday, March 18.
UAMS is closing its COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at the Monroe Building at 4 p.m. Friday, March 18. Image by Bryan Clifton

UAMS to Close COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic, Drive-Thru Testing Site

By Yavonda Chase

| LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will close its COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at the Monroe Building at 4 p.m. Friday, March 18. UAMS will continue to offer COVID vaccines through individual clinics.

Additionally, the COVID testing drive-thru site, located at Shuffield Drive and Jack Stephens Drive on the UAMS campus, will close at 4 p.m. Friday, March 25. Beginning Monday, March 28, COVID testing will be available by appointment only at the Monroe Building (previously the headquarters of the American Red Cross in Arkansas) at 401 S. Monroe St.

The UAMS COVID testing drive-thru site, located at Shuffield Drive and Jack Stephens Drive on the UAMS campus, will close at 4 p.m. Friday, March 25.

The UAMS COVID testing drive-thru site, located at Shuffield Drive and Jack Stephens Drive on the UAMS campus, will close at 4 p.m. Friday, March 25.Bryan Clifton

“As the number of COVID infections continue to drop in Arkansas, we no longer need these COVID-specific areas and can meet the demand for vaccines and testing in other ways,” said Steppe Mette, M.D., CEO of the UAMS Medical Center and senior vice chancellor of UAMS Health. “Closing the vaccine clinic and the drive-thru will allow us to redeploy our workers to areas where they are needed more.”

UAMS first opened its drive-thru COVID testing site March 13, 2020. Staff also conducted drive-up testing events around the state. Since March 2020, UAMS has conducted more than 174,000 tests at these drive-thru locations and more than 218,000 tests overall.

UAMS opened its first COVID vaccination clinic Jan. 19, 2021, in the Freeway Medical Tower on 10th Street. A month later, UAMS partnered with The City of Little Rock to relocate the clinic to the Centre at University Park at 6401 West 12th St., where it remained until July 23, 2021. UAMS opened the current clinic in the Monroe Building in September 2021. Since UAMS Health began offering the COVID vaccine, it has administered more than 118,000 doses.

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

###