Delta Air Lines and the state of Georgia have announced that the Delta Flight Museum near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will become one of the state’s largest Covid-19 vaccination centers next week. It will be one of four mass-vaccination locations in Georgia. Beginning February 22, 2021, prospective recipients of the shot who are eligible under the state’s vaccination guidelines will be able to head to the facility for their inoculation, either within the museum itself or via a drive-through lane.
“Vaccinations are the most important thing we can accomplish to get our lives and our economy back on track,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “We’re proud to partner with Governor Kemp and his team to accelerate vaccinations and save the lives of countless Georgians. We hope this model can serve as a blueprint that can be replicated in other states.”
Registration is already open to Georgia residents and people who work in the state, including healthcare workers, caregivers, residents and staff of long-term care facilities, law enforcement personnel, firefighters, first responders and those 65 years of age or older. As eligibility rules expand, more people will eventually be able to register for vaccinations at the Delta Flight Museum.
The main avenue for vaccine delivery will be a drive-through lane run by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA). Later in February, though, folks will also be able to sign up for a limited number of appointments that will take place inside the Delta Flight Museum at a clinic run by the airline in partnership with a certified health provider. The facility is meant to target residents living near the airport. However, the city’s Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority will also run shuttles to Delta’s campus from the College Park rail station in an effort to provide easy transportation for people without cars.
Delta recently brought on its first chief health officer, Dr. Henry Ting, who was formerly the chief value officer at the Mayo Clinic. “The Covid-19 vaccines now being distributed in the U.S. are a game-changer, with 95 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 99.99 percent efficacy in preventing severe Covid-19,” he said. “Timely distribution will help us stay one step ahead of new virus strains, and partnerships like this are critical enablers in making that process happen.”
Among the other policies and practices Delta has put in place since the start of the pandemic have been to establish the new Delta CareStandard. It includes efforts like keeping high-traffic areas and surfaces at the airport and in its lounges clean and disinfected, enabling more no-contact options for check-in and boarding, requiring face masks for all employees and customers (and providing complimentary masks kits for those who require them), and electrostatically spraying planes with high-grade disinfectants, among other measures. The airline has also partnered with Quest Diagnostics and CVS Health to test its entire workforce and to provide rapid-response Covid tests to employees as often as every week. Delta is also the only major airline in the U.S. that is still blocking middle seats, and recently extended that policy through April 30, 2021.
Along with many other sectors of the travel industry, airlines have been among the hardest-hit businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like other carriers, Delta has had to adjust frequently to rapidly changing circumstances, and stepping up to offer its facilities as part of the public-health push to get Georgia’s population vaccinated is just another way the airline has done so. Perhaps one day, the Delta Flight Museum will even host an exhibit on this moment and how the airline coped.
This article originally appeared on Forbes