Health officials continue offering vaccines locally

AP File

Mass vaccinations in Butler County will be held from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Friday at Hydro Adventures in Poplar Bluff, Butler County Health Department Director Emily Goodin stated during the weekly COVID briefing Wednesday. Registration for this event has closed.

“We’re gearing toward shifting our focus a little to the mass vaccinations,” Goodin said. “We are assisting the National Guard this week to do mass COVID vaccinations. You do have to register.”

It’s not just for residents of Butler County. When the National Guard goes out throughout the state, the vaccinations are open to others. They’re bringing a certain amount of vaccine with them.

“Anybody that’s registered will get the vaccine,” Butler County Emergency Management Director Robbie Myers explained. “They just have to come anytime during the day. They don’t have to be there when it starts at 9 a.m.”

Agreeing, Goodin said, “If you have registered, come anytime, we’re not going to give your vaccine away. We’re only taking those on our list. So if people do show up, and they’re not registered at the National Guard, we’ll ask them to come back when they come back in February, or to attend another National Guard event.”

Those who are registered need to bring the COVID vaccine information sheet they were to fill out. If you don’t have access to a printer, there will be one on site, and you will need a driver’s license to confirm who you are. However, if you don’t have a driver’s license, that’s fine.

Registration having to be online was “out of our hands,” Goodin explained, adding, “I want to thank the Daily American Republic newspaper and the Poplar Bluff Public Library for taking that effort on themselves. I thank you very much for taking on that task.”

Goodin said, the newspaper has “helped us get the word out. You’ve been through the whole pandemic, you’ve been very helpful in helping us be transparent, and get accurate information out to the public. I want to thank the Daily American Republic for all their efforts.”

“Currently, we have 19 new, positive results today, bringing our total to 3936,” Goodin said. “We’re continuing our rapid testing here at the health department by appointment only. You may register via Facebook or on our website. We’re only doing those twice a week. We have the rapid testing; we’re not doing our mass clinics now.”

Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center Chief Compliance Officer Johnna Craft said, vaccination clinics for hospital employees have started.

“We will host the second session of our first clinic next week,” Craft said. “We’ve got about 40% of our workforce that have taken the vaccine, which is wonderful. We will do second doses throughout the next two weeks and then set up some additional vaccination clinics. We’ve also extended to our local practitioners. If there’s a need, they can reach out and we will get them in one of our clinics. We are very thankful to have the vaccinations here.”

Poplar Bluff schools closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and two days for the teachers and administrators in-service training, said Boys and Girls Executive Director Chris Rushin. Classes will resume Thursday and continue throughout the month.

“As far as Boys and Girls Club goes, we had 70 in attendance yesterday, that’s quite an improvement from last year. Today, we’re down to 55, but they’re all new kids,” Rushin said. “We’re going to continue with our protocols that have been enforced. We’ve had a lot of success with those.”

American Red Cross donor recruitment representative Jerrica Fox talked about blood drives and COVID.

“I work with local communities in 16 counties in Southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas. What a lot of people don’t realize is that 80% of our blood donations come from communities, high schools and colleges, and so with COVID-19 across the country, we’ve seen a decline in blood drives due to schools being closed. Sometimes people and protocols don’t allow us in the facilities.”

Without blood donors, “we do not have blood for patients in need,” Fox said. “We will be doing COVID antibody testing on all successful blood donations through April 2021.”

The next blood drives will be in Poplar Bluff from 2-6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, at Sacred Heart Church in the St. Ann’s Hall or the Poplar Bluff Seventh-day Adventist Church. The next available drive in Poplar Bluff is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 18 at Three Rivers College.