WILMINGTON — Staff at the local health department are making plans for COVID booster shot clinics — in fact, the first local round of third doses for individuals who are immuno-compromised was last week.
For the rest of us who are not immuno-compromised, the roll-out here for booster shot clinics is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 20, said Clinton County Health Commissioner Pam Bauer.
She anticipates there will be a tiered system just as there was for the original vaccination shots, where first-responders and health-care workers went first, followed by those advanced in years, and moving into teachers.
“Remember how we started with the 80-year-olds?” said Bauer at Wednesday’s monthly board of health meeting.
“We have lots of interest, lots of requests already to get on our [booster shot clinic] calendar, to start booking for some of those closed PODS [Points Of Dispensing], if you will,” the health commissioner said. Those requests include Wilmington College and the local school systems for their teaching faculties, she said.
Meanwhile, local cases of COVID-19 continue to climb. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 357 active cases in Clinton County. On a late June date, there were 30 active cases.
This month: on Aug. 4, there were 130 active cases; on Aug. 13, there were 206 active cases; and on Aug. 17, active cases numbered 262.
“So you can see that we are really just skyrocketing,” Bauer said.
At mid-afternoon Tuesday, 40.3 percent of the county’s residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Bauer noted that on Tuesday, The Ohio State University announced it is going to require all students and faculty to be vaccinated.
Clinton County Health District Nursing Director Monica Wood said that walk-in COVID vaccine clinics for first- and second-doses currently are held at the South Nelson Avenue location of the health department on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m.
Bauer said Clinton County Municipal Court Judge Michael “Mike” Daugherty has reduced the scheduled jail time of inmates by one or two days if they get vaccinated while they’re in jail.
With county cases on the rise, the health commissioner issued a reminder: If you test positive for COVID-19 and you are a Clinton County resident, the Clinton County Health District uses an online survey to complete case interviews. Please complete the survey at the following link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/CLHW5KP . Or, you can simply click on the link which can be found at the top of the health district’s home page on the web.
The health district is directing people to go to the “survey monkey” as soon as they find out they have tested positive and complete that survey so the health district can get quarantine and isolation letters out as quickly as possible.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
