GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — U.S. Sen. Gary Peters toured the largest vaccination site in West Michigan Monday morning at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids.
Peters said West Michigan was making progress in the vaccine rollout and urged the importance of the vaccine as new variants continued to pop up.
"In challenging times in this country, we always see Americans stepping up and doing their part to make a difference and it's no exception here. We're in a race with variants, that's why it is so important that people get vaccinated quickly because if you aren't you're basically a test tube for the virus to get into your body," Peters said.
The Michigan Democratic senator, as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state officials to secure more than 200 additional federal personnel to assist at vaccination sites in the state.
The West Michigan Vaccine Center at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids administered over 200,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of the last week in April 2021, and broke the record of 12,000 vaccines administered in a single day.
The vaccination site was scheduled to close on May 22 due to vaccines being more widely accessible.