COVID-19 vaccination events for children planned at 2 Henrico middle schools
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Two Henrico County public schools will host COVID-19 vaccination clinics this month and next for children 5 to 11, Richmond and Henrico Health Districts officials announced Thursday.
The clinics (Saturday, Nov. 13 at Fairfield Middle School and Saturday, Nov. 20 at Elko Middle School) each will operate from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Follow-up clinics at each site also will be held exactly three weeks later to provide second doses (Dec. 4 at Fairfield and Dec. 11 at Elko, during the same timeframe each day).
Additional clinics are planned in Richmond at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School Nov. 13 and Dec. 4, and at George Wythe High School Nov. 20 and Dec. 11, all from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. as well.
The efforts are designed in part to make vaccination options more accessible in communities where access to the shots might otherwise be an issue.
“We have planned these Saturday events to make it more convenient for parents and families to attend, but we have also integrated availability at our standing hubs that we have Tuesday through Friday,” RHHD Public Health Nurse Supervisor LaWanda Dunn said. “And then we are continuously in contact with the school systems about other opportunities to get children vaccinated.”
The FDA and CDC recently authorized the Pfizer vaccine for use in children 5 to 11, and the RHHD is administering its first doses to local children in that age range today at Richmond Raceway. There are an estimated 29,000 or so children 5 to 11 in Henrico County.
Virginia is receiving 377,000 doses of vaccine for children in an initial shipment this week, of which the RHHD received 5,100, according to RHHD Nurse Manager Amy Popovich. The agency kept 1,800 of those for use at the raceway and other of its own events and distributed the rest to free clinics, pediatricians and other doctors who treat children, she said.
In addition, pharmacies that are part of the federal partnership received doses directly from the federal government, Popovich said, adding that officials expect there to be plenty of doses for those who want them in the coming days. Some local Walgreens pharmacies are offering appointments for children as soon as Saturday, while some CVS locations show appointments beginning Sunday.
Parents who want to get their children vaccinated at an RHHD event must register in advance by calling (804) 205-3501 or visiting http://vax.rchd.com. That’s in part to ensure that they have "as positive an experience as possible,” without having to wait in long lines, Popovich said.
The benefits to vaccinating children, Popovich said, are several.
“Severe outcomes have occurred [from COVID] in children 5 to 11, regardless of whether they have an underlying medical condition,” Popovich said. “COVID-19 vaccines are a crucial tool that can protect children from these outcomes, and they can also help them lead a more normal life, like not having to stay home for two weeks when they get exposed, staying in school longer, being able to visit family friends, even those who are most vulnerable, traveling, and then doing those fun afterschool and extracurricular activities.”
Of more than 5 million Virginians who have been vaccinated, less than 1% are known to have subsequently contracted COVID, just 0.029% have been hospitalized and only 0.009% have died, Popovich said.
