Mid-Missouri mass vaccination event rescheduled three weeks after original date

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

As the state continues to roll out the coronavirus vaccine with large scale events, winter weather is starting to get in the way of that effort.

In Mid-Missouri, the next mass vaccination event at the School of the Osage near the Lake of the Ozarks was rescheduled from Feb. 14 until March 7th because of winter weather.

According to a release from Lake Regional Health System says all of the people who were scheduled to get the vaccine on Sunday will be contacted to make an appointment for that date or earlier.

The Administrator for the Camden County Health Department Stephanie Dake told ABC17 News it already received the 2,000 vaccine doses for the event. She said some of the doses will be redistributed to another mass vaccination event happening this week.

She said they may be distributing some of those doses on their own, or saving it until that March 7th event, if possible.

The multi-agency Regional Implementation Team was working on rescheduling the event on Wednesday, according to Cole County's Office of Emergency Management. The Cole County Health Department is leading the region's effort, and could not provide any additional details on Wednesday.

Dake said the event was rescheduled to keep the population coming safe, as well as the staff.

It was rescheduled for March 7th for several reasons. Dake said the second dose event was already scheduled for that day, so it already worked with the venue. She also said some conflicting events in the areas during the next few weeks that mutual aid, who is helping out with the event, was not available for.

The governor's deputy chief of Staff Robert Knodell said during a state press briefing the decision to cancel events comes from the Missouri National Guard, SEMA and the local partners organizing the event.

He said the winter weather has caused issues for other events across the state.

"Our National Guard mass vaccination teams tell us it's very difficult to thaw frozen vaccine at an outdoor event when the temperature is 5 degrees," Knodell said.

He said the hope is to reschedule those events within days of the original date.

"They try to postpone those a couple of days until conditions improve, rather than pushing them back weeks at a time so that we are continuing to get the vaccinations done," Knodell said.

ABC17 News reached out to the state health department to follow up about the canceled events and vaccine doses, but did not receive a response.

Tune into ABC17 News at 9 and 10 for the full story.