The Clark County Combined Health District is also turning their attention to more community outreach clinics instead of mass vaccine clinics, according to Health Commissioner Charlie Patterson. The community outreach clinics include reaching out to all of the county’s superintendents to set up clinics at high schools.
“We said ‘reach out to your families. We will come to your school and do vaccinations for the 16, 17 and 18 years old and their families at your school,” Patterson said last week.
The Champaign Health District will be holding clinics at two school districts this week.
Mechanicsburg Exempted Village Schools will offer a clinic from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Thursday.
“In partnership with the Champaign County Health District, we decided to make our facility available for a community clinic, allowing students, staff, and families the chance to receive a vaccine locally,” Superintendent Danielle Prohaska said. “The onsite vaccine clinic option prioritizes the health and time of parties that may be interested in a vaccine with little disruption to the school day.”
Triad Local Schools will offer a clinic from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday in the Athletic Facility/Community Room.
“I am happy to be able to provide the vaccine on campus so students that want to receive it can do so,” Superintendent Vickie Hoffman said. “It is 100% a student/family choice.”
Hoffman said she surveyed students between the ages of 16 and 18, and the district had at least 30 who said they were interested in receiving the vaccine.
The clinics, which will offer the Pfizer vaccine, are open to staff, students, families and other community members who are 16 or older. There will be consent forms to sign for students who are 16 or 17 if a parent is not there. No parent is needed for students who are 18. To sign up, visit gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio.gov.
One Clark County school district is also looking at the possibility of running two vaccination clinics at the school.
Northwestern Local Schools is looking at one clinic for community members and another one for students.
“The health department has asked us if we could use a vaccination here on campus. Their thought is, if we have enough community members who would like to be vaccinated for COVID-19, they will come out here to our campus and set up a clinic,” Superintendent Jesse Steiner said.
The district has put out a survey to see how many community members would be interested in a clinic at the school.
Steiner said the health department also asked if they would be willing to provide a vaccine clinic for students 16 and older if their parents agree and the student wants it, so the district will put out a second survey for students.
“We want to know your input,” he said. “This is all volunteer basis. We’re not pushing vaccinations on anyone. We just want to provide a service if you want that service.”
School coronavirus cases doubled over the last two weeks.
Sixty student and staff cases were reported between Clark and Champaign counties for the week of April 6-12, which is double from the 33 cases reported for the week of March 30-April 5.
Jones said the school vaccine clinics are not tied to the increase in cases.
“These are not directly tied to an increase in cases. We have been wanting to set clinics up in various parts of the county for some time,” he said. “Cases have been rising all over the state, so this is likely why we are seeing a rise in school cases.”
Jones said the health district has also scheduled a vaccine clinic at Graham Local Schools on Friday, April 30, and at Urbana City Schools on Friday, May 7.
As of Monday, 47,475 vaccination shots had been given in Clark County and 11,325 in Champaign County, according to the Ohio Department of Health. About 35% of Clark County’s total population and 29% of Champaign County’s total population has received at least one shot.
A little over 28% of Clark County’s total population and 22% of Champaign County’s total population had been fully vaccinated as of Monday afternoon.
Clark County had 13,660 cases and 293 deaths of the coronavirus as of Monday afternoon, according to ODH. Champaign County had 3,215 cases and 57 deaths.
Facts & Figures
47,475: Number of vaccine shots given in Clark County
11,325: Number of vaccine shots given in Champaign County
35%: Percentage of Clark County population that has received at least one shot
29%: Percentage of Champaign County population that has received at least one shot
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