Mass vaccine event March 9 in Poplar Bluff

AP File

Butler County’s next mass vaccination clinic will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 9 at the Black River Coliseum.

Butler County Health Department administrator Emily Goodin announced the upcoming clinic during the weekly COVID-19 briefing Wednesday with Robbie Myers, county emergency management agency director.

“We are in the planning stages with Robbie, SEMA and the National Guard for Butler County’s next mass vaccination clinic,” said Goodin, who was working onsite at a mass clinic in Bollinger County, helping the Missouri National Guard.

Goodin explained, “we are using the vaccine navigator for registration. So if anybody’s interested, they can go ahead on covidvaccine.mo.gov, or call 1-877-435-8411. They can go ahead and get registered. When our event becomes available, it will go live about eight days prior to our event. They’ll be able to choose or schedule what time to make their appointment.”

Myers said residents should be able to schedule times for their visit to the clinic by March 1.

The health department does receive weekly allotments of vaccine, but, Goodin said, “we never know how much we’re going to get from week to week. We request vaccine every week. We do have a waiting list of almost 4,000 people. We are slowly calling those in the priority phases, scheduling them at the health department, when vaccine becomes available.”

COVID testing is still conducted at the center by appointment, Goodin said.

“We are doing the rapid testing twice a week,” Goodin said. “If you need a test, we ask that you go on our website or Facebook page, and you can click on that link to schedule a test.”

The health center reported three new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the total cases in the county to 4,251.