Hundreds of Cape students age 12 and older have signed up for school-based COVID-19 vaccination clinics being offered over the next two weeks, local health and education officials said.
Barnstable County is supplying first doses of the Pfizer vaccine for clinics in several Cape school districts, starting Thursday at Monomoy Regional High School, Barnstable County Public Health Nurse Deirdre Arvidson said.
She said the county hopes to dispense 1,100 to 1,200 first doses in Cape schools between now and early June.
As of Tuesday, 159 people had signed up for the Monomoy clinic, 146 for a clinic being put on by the Nauset Regional School District and 103 for a Friday clinic at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School, for which registration was just made available Monday, Arvidson said.
On March 31, Fallon Ambulance conducted a mobile clinic on behalf of the state Department of Public Health that tested about 300 people for COVID-19.
Sandwich dropped into the state’s lower risk “yellow” zone April 15, but when Wednesday’s second testing clinic was scheduled the town s numbers were high,” Health Agent David Mason said.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education directed elementary schools to return students to in-person class five days a week by April 5, with middle school students directed to be back in their buildings full time by April 28.
But Gould said Sandwich school officials were able to get an extension for students in grades 7-8, delaying their full-time, in-person return until May 10.
This story has been updated.
BOURNE State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, on Thursday slapped down a freshman state representative’s plans for a teacher vaccination clinic this month at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School.
But state Rep. Steven G. Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, does not intend to abandon plans for the Bourne clinic, according to a Thursday afternoon statement from his office.
“This has nothing to do with politics,” said the statement from Xiarhos’ chief of staff, Kaitlin M. Wright.
“Since taking office, Rep. Xiarhos’ goal has been to get our students fully back to school in person, and he remains committed to helping make that a reality,” she said.
Now the school just needs the vaccine nearly 2,000 doses.
“That’s what we’re waiting for,” school Superintendent Roger Forget said Wednesday afternoon.
The plan is to dispense 1,997 first shots in a single day possibly March 19 to pre-K through grade 12 staff in the Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Mashpee and Upper Cape Tech school districts, he said.
“It’s not just teachers. It’s everyone. It’s the bus drivers. It’s the custodians,” said Forget, who worked with state Rep. Steven G. Xiarhos, Sandwich Selectman David J. Sampson and Sandwich fire Chief John Burke to get the state Department of Public Health to approve the school as a vaccination site.