Dozens Vaccinated Against COVID-19 at Rose Bowl Flea Market

Pasadena Public Health officials and Huntington Hospital staff set up a table of their own at the Rose Bowl Flea Market on Sunday, offering COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as free admission to the event for those who took advantage.

Forty-four swap meet shoppers were inoculated at the event, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. All three current formulations of COVID-19 vaccine were offered, but most people chose the single-dose Johnson and Johnson option.

“I’m feeling good,” Ruben Alonzo of Victorville told CBS upon getting his first dose at Sunday’s clinic. “The incentive was the money. And then also, I knew it was going to open up on the 15th and that not everyone was going to wear their mask.”

The clinic was part of a recent push to vaccinate as many people as possible ahead of the planned lifting of state and local pandemic restrictions on Tuesday.

“Our goal is to make it easy on people and go to where they are,” Derderian said. “Teaming up with the Rose Bowl Flea Market and [organizer] RG Canning to offer free admission to those who were vaccinated was a great incentive and demonstrated the commitment of our community partners to help us raise our numbers of those inoculated in the last few days before the state opens up.”

Pasadena’s vaccine rate is reportedly the highest in the state.

“We thank the community for keeping our vaccine percentage high to protect each other and can’t stress enough the importance of getting vaccinated to be able to participate or attend graduations, camps, sporting events, concerts, et cetera,” Derderian said. “And although we’ll never forget the tragedy of this past year, we hope we can move forward to rebuild lives, economy and restore more normal behavior.”