Rural areas of Mid-Missouri continue to see extra doses at mass vaccination clinics

MONITEAU COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Rural areas of Mid-Missouri holding mass coronavirus vaccination clinics are still seeing a large number of extra doses as the state continues to open up eligibility to more residents.

As of Tuesday morning, the Moniteau County Health Center reported only 545 vaccine appointments filled leaving 1,795 open.

In a Facebook post the health center said staff plan to administer the vaccine to eligible Missourians. However, if there are no-shows, people not yet eligible can get shots to prevent wasting them, the health center said.

Andrea Kincaid, with the Moniteau County Health Center said it opened up walk-in appointments to limit waste.

"The original registration was fairly low and so I feel like with having the walk ins its really helped fill in a lot of the spots to get the vaccine into arms," Kincaid said.

Missouri opened up Phase 2 of its coronavirus vaccination plan Monday. The newest phase includes food and agriculture workers not yet covered under previous tiers, higher education, the homeless, construction workers and other groups.

In Johnson County, health officials said they had 600 vaccine appointments still available for clinics on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, appointments are filling up.

According to the state's COVID-19 dashboard, only 19.2% of the population in Moniteau County has initiated vaccination, and only 14.8% of the population has initiated vaccination in Johnson County.

At the beginning of March, hundreds of extra doses were left over after clinics in Putnam County and Cooper County.

Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for the state health department, said in a statement a few weeks ago that the state is continuing to work closely with local partners to make sure what areas are receiving matches the current need of their community and region.

"This is unchartered territory for everyone, and we are always working to learn and improve processes along the way," Cox said.

Cox did not respond Tuesday morning to an ABC 17 News request for updated information.