PREBLE COUNTY — Preble County Public Health will hold a two-day vaccination clinic for the staff of all five county schools at Eagles Point in Eaton on Feb. 25-26.
Eligible K-12 employees, including teachers and long-term substitutes, bus drivers and cafeteria workers, environmental and building services workers as well as other adults in school district such as office personnel, aides, non-teaching staff, coaches, etc., will be able to sign up for a vaccination time between 12:30-6 p.m. through a scheduling portal provided by PCPH.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, this clinic does not include school board members, parent volunteers, or early-childhood providers.
The portal is expected to be up and running by the end of this week, and once active, school superintendents will contact staff with information for signing up.
Staff who opt to receive the vaccine during this clinic will automatically be signed up to receive their second dose – either 21 days later for the Pfizer vaccine or 28 days later for Moderna, as the state has not yet indicated to the health department which vaccine they will recieve.
Preble County Health Commissioner Erik Balster told The Register-Herald that the county is expecting to receive “just shy” of 700 doses next week for this clinic, and that each district has indicated over 50 percent of their staff is interested in being vaccinated.
For faculty who have previously contracted COVID-19, Balster said the CDC and other medical professionals still recommend receiving the vaccine.
“The only instance where you wouldn’t want to get it is if you’re actively positive for COVID at the moment,” Balster said, indicating that the vaccine gives you the “maximum amount” of immunity going forward.
According to Balster, staff who elect to not receive the vaccine will likely not have another chance to be vaccinated until either their age group becomes eligible or the vaccine goes to the general public.
“We just hope that the staff at the schools take advantage of this opportunity to get vaccinated, and we’ll help them with any questions or concerns they may have,” he said.
Balster also commended the work of the county superintendents in coordinating the upcoming vaccinations.
“When we finally got the date last week that we’d be receiving vaccines, then we finally got to put some hard numbers down and work,” he said. “[Preble ESC Superintendent] Shawn Hoff has been a great asset, and all the superintendents have been really good about relaying information back and forth with us.”
Additionally, though College Corner is listed under Preble County in the state’s vaccine distribution list, since the district is staffed by Indiana, the district has elected to work with the state of Indiana for their vaccination.
