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LISBON -- School employees are soon to get their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The plans are in place to vaccinate teachers, custodial, food service, bus drivers and others who have contact with students on a regular basis.
The county health department will have six vaccination teams heading to six of the county schools for on-site vaccinations on Thursday, Feb. 11 -- Crestview, Leetonia, Lisbon, Southern, United and Wellsville.
Mass vaccination coordinator Laura Fauss said the teams will be working with the assistance of the schools to get those shots done without interrupting anything else. School nurses, who were vaccinated in an early group with the health care workers, will be helping with those vaccinations.
Several other schools in the county have contracted with a pharmacy chain in order to get their employees the vaccines -- Beaver Local, Columbiana, East Liverpool Christian School, East Palestine and Salem.
Additionally, the East Liverpool City Health District will be handling vaccinations for those at East Liverpool City Schools and the Salem City Health District will be vaccinating staff at St. Paul School.
Any remaining smaller schools will be vaccinated during the drive-up clinic on Friday. Health Commissioner Wes Vins said they have reached out to an Amish school and four Mennonite schools to offer vaccinations to the staff.
Educational Service Center Superintendent Anna Marie Vaughn said ESC Board President Richard Stout has recently made remarks about how appreciative everyone has been about the help they have received from the Columbiana County Health Department. Vaughn added the health department officials have been working with the ESC and school superintendents since the beginning back in March when the schools first learned they would have to close and had a lot of questions about the new pandemic. The health department has continued to work with them as the provided meals to students learning remotely and as schools tried to find ways to conclude last school year. Then starting in May, the health department helped schools design plans for the current school year to reopen schools, as the schools prepared to hold sports and other activities and all while still keeping students and staff as safe as possible.
"Now that we are starting a process, in some places they may have to put on hold community vaccines in order to do school districts," Vaughn said. "We aren't going to have to do that. We're not going to have to interrupt that flow."
Fauss pointed out these vaccine clinics for schools will not affect the other local clinics, which will be ramping up to two days a week, now that those who received their first doses are ready for their second. There are enough vaccines next week for the local community clinic at the fairgrounds, the second doses also expected to begin next week and the schools, which could all have their first doses by Friday, Feb. 12.
The Vaccination Complex at the county fairgrounds will host new vaccinations next week, which may drop down to those age 65 and older on Wednesday, Feb. 10. To make an appointment and reserve a dose, those in the age group should call either 330-692-2210 or 330-429-5133 starting on Monday, Feb. 8.
Those who received their first doses four weeks ago will be asked to return to the fairgrounds for their next dose on Friday, Feb. 12.
Fauss said the ESC and local schools have been great partners to work with as well and Columbiana County is lucky to have the people willing to work together on getting vaccinations done.
With vaccination clinics slated for the health department on three days next week, Vins said the staff and partners are prepared for more and more doses to be given.
"This is just our opening act," Vins said. "We are just getting started."
Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Thursday the 65 and older category may take awhile and the age may hold there and not drop lower for some time. As the age groups get younger, there are more people in them.
In Columbiana County, the Ohio Department of Health lists that there have now been 7,633 vaccinations started with the first dose with 2,685 of them age 80 and older, which is nearly 51.7 percent of that age group population. Another 20 percent of those ages 70 to 79 have received their first dose.
However, only 1,829 Columbiana County residents have received their second dose, which is 1.8 percent of the population.
Columbiana County has had 7,693 cases of coronavirus with 131 deaths, according to the Ohio Department of Health. The county health department updates case and death information on Fridays.
djohnson@mojonews.com