A National Guardsman works during a drive-thru vaccination event on Feb. 11. Jackson County photo
Jackson County will close its phone-based vaccine appointment registration system on Friday, Feb. 26, as the county prepares to offer the vaccine to additional groups.
Since late December, the Jackson County Department of Public Health has worked to vaccinate those in Group 1 (healthcare workers, those living and working in long term care facilities) and Group 2 (those 65 years and older). Working with Jackson County Emergency Management, Jackson County Department on Aging, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, other county departments, Sylva Police Department, Harris Regional Hospital, Harris EMS, and many others, the health department has preregistered more than 7,000 community members, provided eight drive-thru clinics and administered more than 4,000 vaccines.
Vaccinations climb in WNC Mike Taylor receives a vaccination from EMS Supervisor Toby Moore. David Profitt/JCPS photo
Staff at Jackson County Public Schools looking forward to COVID-19 vaccination got a welcome surprise last week when an impromptu clinic on Jan. 22 vaccinated 313 people who work for the school system.
“This got put together on very short notice,” said JCPS Director of Human Resources Kevin Bailey, Ph.D. “On Wednesday (Jan. 20) the hospital reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got 350 doses of the vaccine that have to be gone by Monday of next week, and can you guys take it?’ We said, ‘We’ll do whatever we’ve got to do to be able to take it.’”