Columbia Public Schools to host its first student vaccine clinic Tuesday

COLUMBIA, MO (KMIZ)

Columbia Public Schools will host it's first student vaccination clinic at Battle High School on Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Students looking to receive a vaccine at CPS clinics must be at least 16 years old and have a signed parental consent form. The clinics are in partnership with Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services department. The Pfizer vaccine will be given out at each student clinic, any student 16 and older are eligible to sign up for the vaccine.

CPS has a total of 5 student vaccine clinics scheduled for the remainder of the school year.

• Battle High School              5/4/21   9am-12pm                     
• Rock Bridge High School     5/5/21   9am-12pm                     
• Douglass High School          5/6/21   10am                             
• CORE                                      5/6/21   9 am                                 
• Hickman High School          5/7/21   9am-12pm       

Second dose clinics are already scheduled at the same place and time 3 weeks from the first dose.

"It’s very similar to what we do in a more traditional year when we offer flu vaccinations to our students with the flu vaccinations so the clinics will be set up in a similar manner consent is required from a parent the student must be 16 years old or older in order to receive the Pfizer vaccine. We’ve already set up obviously the clinics for the first dose for high schools as well as the second dose,", says, Michelle Baumstark, CPS spokeswoman.

Baumstark says the clinic will look no different than the district's flu shot clinics that is provided to schools every year. “I think our parents are relatively familiar with this process since we do it every year for our flu vaccinations  this isn’t an out of ordinary it’s just this time it’s related to the COVID 19 vaccine."

CPS high school teacher, Susie Adams, says she's excited that some of her students will be able to have easy access to the vaccine without having to go through any trouble of getting access to an appointment.

“I was very excited I heard it in our morning announcements and I’m super excited for our kids to have that opportunity in our local schools the fact that they won’t have to travel anywhere or go to the hassle of trying to make appointments. I think it’s just going to be something really easy for them to sign up and get that vaccine," said Adams.

Adams says some of her students have already received a vaccine because of their jobs and some of her students are planning to take advantage of the vaccine clinic opportunity. She says she hopes with staff members and students getting vaccinated, it will bring them closer to a normal classroom environment.

“It’s exciting to know that people are getting that vaccine that it’s one step closer to returning to normal that perhaps at some point we could take our masks off and be in a classroom and really be able to talk to each other. My teacher's voice has gotten really loud to accommodate talking through a mask," said Adams.

As of April 23, 61.6% of CPS staff members have been vaccinated. Many staff members are considered to be fully vaccinated as 2 weeks have passed since receiving their second vaccine dose.

As of Friday, Boone county has administered 137,605 vaccine doses; of that 60,175 Boone county residents are considered to be fully vaccinated, making up 33.3% of the county's population.

The state has administered 3,879,055 vaccine doses, of that 1,703,609 Missourians have completed the vaccination process. 37.4% of the state's population has initiated the vaccination process.