Up to 10,000 elderly Coloradans could get a COVID-19 shot at a mass vaccination at Denver’s Coors Field this weekend. 

The setting: a mile and a half stretch of parking lot, 10 lanes wide. In a series of heated tents, preregistered patients will receive the potentially life-saving vaccine and be monitored for a reaction, all from the comfort of their car.

The health system plans to vaccinate 5,000 people a day Saturday and Sunday. Based on a dry run last weekend in cooperation with city, county and state health officials, UCHealth believes it could vaccinate as many as 8,000 people a day, if given the supply, Dr. Richard Zane, UCHealth’s chief innovation officer, said at a Wednesday news conference.

“The single biggest challenge is really the vaccine supply,” he said, adding that the system is capable of vaccinating 1,000 individuals in under two hours.

Sunday’s dry run helped UCHealth work out kinks, all of which were minor logistical issues, he said – cones and flags that could be better positioned, cars that could have been pointed in a more optimal direction.

The most major issue Sunday: a patient’s car died.

“We were quickly able to jump the car and move people through,” he said, adding that UCHealth will develop a playbook based on the event that will be accessible to health systems throughout the state wishing to hold similar events.

The event’s success was “reaffirming,” he said, of the importance of setting appointments, as opposed to allowing anyone to show up and the “bedlam” that has ensued at such events elsewhere.

Residents throughout the state who want to get the vaccine from UCHealth can sign up to receive a randomized invitation to this weekend’s mass event or other vaccination opportunities, even if they’re not currently a patient with the health system, Zane said. Once invited to an event, individuals have have 48 hours to register before the invite is extended to someone else.

Existing patients who have a My Health Connection online portal account will be notified via email or app when they can schedule their vaccine. Current patients who do not have such accounts will be notified by phone when they can receive a vaccine. Those who are not current patients can sign up for a My Health Connection account or call the UCHealth COVID-19 vaccine hotline at (720) 462-2255 to be added to the list. When a vaccine is available, they will receive a phone call. The hotline’s hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Among those who have been invited to this weekend’s event are residents of certain Denver-area ZIP codes health officials asked the system to target, in an attempt to ensure equitable ethnic distribution of the vaccine. Sunday’s event included translation services for several   languages, Zane noted.

The system is working to hold future vaccination events that may shuttle in patients who lack transportation, or come to them via a “pop up” clinic, he said.

He noted the importance of “becoming part of the herd that is vaccinated” to achieve herd immunity in the state.

“The faster we get vaccinated, the faster we get back to normal.”