Clinics for kids 12 and up to get Pfizer s COVID-19 vaccine have been scheduled.
The Teton County Health Department announced Thursday that it would hold a clinic Monday at Jackson Hole High School and Tuesday at Jackson Hole Middle School. Both will run from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
All students in Teton County, public school, private school and home-schooled, are welcome to attend, as can their parents or guardians. The vaccines are free.
Parents or guardians do not need to attend, but they must sign a release form for anyone under 18. Teton County School District No. 1 and the area s private schools will be sending out information on how to sign up and where to find the forms.
Get a shot, win a prize.
Thatâs the basic premise of the Teton County Health Departmentâs âShots for Swagâ campaign. Director Jodie Pond announced the upcoming prizes-for-vaccines push during Fridayâs community update.
âWeâre going to encourage those that havenât been vaccinated to participate in our campaign and sign up for the drawings for great prizes,â she said.
Donât worry if you already were vaccinated; you can enter, too. The push is meant to reach the Health Departmentâs new goal of vaccinating 80% of Teton County residents by the Fourth of July.
Though epidemiologists donât truly know the percentage of protection needed for herd immunity from COVID-19, most estimates fall between 70% and 90%, so Pond is taking the average. The community is well on its way, with 61% of residents fully vaccinated, but the pace has been slowing.
Vaccinations for kids as young as 12 are slated to begin next week, a move public health officials say is an important step that could push Teton County toward some semblance of herd immunity.
âThatâs a couple thousand kids right there,â Teton County Director of Health Jodie Pond said. âIt can go into our numbers, and having a small population, a couple thousand people, that makes a difference.â
COVID-19 vaccines have been available only for adults because the clinical trials for them included only older people. For the Pfizer vaccine, the age limit has been 16 years old; for Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson shots, the age is 18.
Teton County, Wyo. moves to green COVID-19 risk level
JACKSON, Wyo. (KIFI) – The Teton County Health Department announced Teton County, Wyo. has moved down into the Green (New Normal) Risk Level for COVID-19.
This decrease from the Yellow (Low) Risk Level has resulted from continued improvements in the local COVID-19 metrics including the total number of new cases and the reduction in COVID-19 cases being attributed to community spread.
This is the first time the county has been in the green risk level since the health department created the COVID-19 risk level guidance system in the Summer of 2020.
Health officials said we can attribute the county’s move to the high uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations in the community and mask-wearing.
As other counties and states make headlines by tying COVID-19 vaccinations to benefits like free drinks, Teton County is wondering what role it can play in incentivizing people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
No decisions have been made and the Teton County Board of County Commissioners is not unanimous in what it wants to do, if anything.
But it did begin the conversation Monday when Commissioner Luther Propst asked to hear more from the Teton County Health Department about what would be helpful.
After that morningâs meeting, Propst told the News&Guide he didnât want a resurgence of the virus. COVID-19 case levels have been low, with the county reporting a seven-day average of daily new cases at 2.3 Sunday. Thatâs the lowest level seen in Jackson Hole since the end of June 2020, when cases began to climb towards their summer peak. With that and a relatively high vaccination rate as a backdrop, county officials met in-person and mostly unmasked Monday morning â