State to offer H1N1 vaccine clinics to general public

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — It was a disappointing turnout for H1N1 flu shot clinics offered to preschool through 12th grade students in Ellsworth, Hills-Beaver Creek, Adrian and Round Lake-Brewster school districts on Friday and Monday.

Nobles-Rock Community Health Services Administrator Brad Meyer said just 35 percent of the students in each of the districts returned parental consent forms and received the shot during the first school-wide vaccination clinics offered for the H1N1 injectable and nasal mist. Still, the number of students vaccinated in such clinics is better than the statewide average of 30 percent, he said.

NRCHS is planning another clinic, this time in Worthington, for preschool through 12th-grade students. The clinics will begin at 9 a.m. Monday at Prairie Elementary, Worthington Middle School and Worthington High School.

The latest announcement for a vaccination clinic came the same day as the Minnesota Department of Health announced the vaccine would be available to the general public beginning on Wednesday.

However, Meyer said the vaccine will not be available to the general public in Nobles and Rock counties — where it has already been slow in arriving — until the end of this month, at the earliest.

In Nobles and Rock counties, however, where the vaccine has been slow in arriving, Meyer said vaccine “It’s just a matter of waiting until we get the vaccine,” he said. “We are not going to be sitting on the vaccine. We want to give it out as soon as possible.”

Meyer said community clinics will be scheduled once there is a supply on hand.

NRCHS isn’t the only public health agency in the state still waiting on vaccine to distribute to the primary groups — those with chronic medical conditions, children up to age 18, pregnant women and childcare workers.

“There are counties like us that haven’t gotten the vaccine until late and are trying to play catch-up,” Meyer said. “There are other counties that have had the vaccine for a while and think they are ready to move on to the general population.”

Meyer said the majority of the schools in the two counties will have hosted H1N1 vaccination clinics by Monday, with two schools planning their H1N1 clinics after students return to class in January.

Tags: h1n1, novel influenza, swine flu, news, worthington, vaccination, clinic