A syringe of COVID-19 vaccine at North Suburban Medical Center in Thornton, Dec. 17, 2020.
For Rhiannon Wenning’s high school students, history lessons during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are sometimes all too real.
“Last semester, when I was teaching about the black plague, students were able to make many comparisons and parallels between the black plague and what’s going on right now with COVID,” Wenning said. “Everything that we’re teaching they’re able to see and they’re experiencing themselves.”
But while teachers continue to do what they do educate our state’s kids many of them say they’re also putting themselves at serious risk of getting sick. Many school districts around Colorado either have or soon will transition back to full or part-time in-person learning.
That is a strong tool that we have embraced within our preparedness program and within our health department is to utilize the strength of community partnerships and community organizations who interact with this population all the time, said Christine Billings, head of the Office of Pandemic Response in JeffCo.
She said her team is working to get the vaccine to partners in the neighborhoods where seniors live. Billings said more than 42,000 seniors in Jefferson County have been vaccinated, with more than 11,000 having received both doses.
For additional speed and efficiency, JeffCo is enlisting the neighborhood pharmacies that many older residents are already familiar with.
Jefferson County Public Health said sign-ups will be added every Thursday or Friday for the following week. Author: Jennifer Campbell-Hicks Updated: 3:14 PM MST February 3, 2021
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) said on Monday that it was expanding its vaccination clinic to residents 70 and older by appointment starting this week.
Appointments will be available to those 70 and older beginning Wednesday at the Arvada Fire Protection District Training Center, 6651 Indiana St. About 200 people over age 70 received their first vaccine dose at the clinic on Feb. 3.
A spokesperson said they ll be updating their website with additional vaccine clinic opportunities on a weekly basis. They expect new sign-ups to be posted every Thursday or Friday for the following week. To sign up for an appointment, go to the JCPH COVID-19 Clinics webpage.
At a time when many people have become frustrated with how efforts to control the spread of the novel coronavirus are proceeding, Jefferson County offered some hope last week.