Community Corner
School Nurses Receive Vaccines Thanks To County Health Department
Nurses and health staff members showed off their vaccine cards after they received their first dose of the
January 05, 2021
Nurses and health staff members of the Wentzville School District showed off their vaccine cards after they received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Them being health professionals and definitely being on the front lines, working with staff and students in our school, they were at the top of the list,” said Superintendent. Dr. Curtis Cain. Dr. Cain says eight of their 36 health care staffers were vaccinated thanks to the St. Charles County Health Department. Doug Bolnik, the spokesperson for the county health department, said they reserved around 100 of the 400 doses they received from the state for school nurses across the county. School nurses are in category 1A of the Missouri vaccine rollout plan. Whereas- the rest of the teachers and educators are in 1B, which will be the next phase.
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“I am very excited to get it. I’m actually a high-risk individual so I am very much looking forward to getting it,” said Jeff Landow, a high school teacher at Lafayette in the Rockwood School District in St. Louis County. He says they have been given no update on when they might receive the vaccine, but he’s hopeful sometime in the coming months. The Missouri Department of Education said at this point, there is no known timeline for when those in 1B will receive the vaccine and they are hopeful nurses in 1A will receive them over the next several weeks. "There is an exceptionally limited supply of vaccine available currently in Missouri,” said Mallory McGowin, the spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Education. There are around 200,000 public and private school employees that fall in 1B. “As the supply of vaccine allocations to Missouri grows, we will provide more communication to the necessary stakeholders and critical infrastructure employees that will be eligible to receive the vaccine,” said McGowin. “There continues to be a number of decisions and details to work through at the state level.” St. Louis County and St. Louis City Health Departments have not yet received doses from the state and also do not have any timeline of when they might.
A spokesperson for St. Louis Public Schools said they are early in the discussion phase.
“We are currently working on a partnership that would enable us to offer the vaccine to our staff, including nurses, this spring,” said Meredith Pierce with the St. Louis Public Schools.
