National Guard hosts COVID vaccine booster shot clinic

AP File

COVID vaccination updates and possible severe weather warnings filled Butler County Emergency Management Agency’s COVID briefing Wednesday.

Butler County Health Department Administrator Emily Goodin said, “We are gearing up for our booster event, which will be Tuesday, March 30, at the Black River Coliseum.”

If someone got their primary shot at the National Guard’s recent event, they should receive that link from state’s online vaccine navigator, Goodin said. The local event will be on the scheduling link.

“Go ahead and click that link, find our event and schedule an appointment,” she said. “When they come for their second shot, they need to bring their vaccination card. It’s very important to come with that card. Unfortunately, we just can’t vaccinate you.”

Goodin added, “Hopefully, we’ll be bringing back another mass National Guard event mid April with the tiers opening up.”

The health center is doing rapid COVID testing twice a week by appointment, which, Goodin said, can be done online, either via Facebook or on the center’s website.

Goodin said, “For the week, we’re putting the numbers from Wednesday to Wednesday. We had 24 new cases, bringing our total to 4,355.”

While the number of COVID cases is decreasing, the number of students attending the Poplar Bluff Boys and Girls Club is increasing.

Boys and Girls Club Director Chris Rushin said, “We took care of 396 kids yesterday, which we’ve been running right around that 400 number. We would have a lot more, but a lot of our kids are involved in extracurricular activities, such as track and field, baseball, ROTC. Our kids do a lot of things in the spring. We certainly encourage that.”

Rushin checked last year’s numbers to see how many students were enrolled compared to today.

“The funny part was when I asked how many do we have a year ago today, the total was exactly zero,” Rushin said. “We were running about 407 before the pandemic hit last year. We were 396 yesterday, so we’re exactly where we need to be. A year ago, before the pandemic, our enrollment was at 667. This year, it’s 627, so just slightly below that number.”

Butler County Emergency Management Director Robbie Myers informed the group the National Weather Service is predicting possible storms Thursday, March 25.