Greg Lara, administrator of the Gasconade County Health Department, issued a release Friday afternoon detailing efforts to obtain some of the “federal allotment” of vaccines to fight coronavirus which is available ahead of the scheduled March 15 authorized start date for administration to school staff and childcare workers.

“We just received information today (March 5) that some pharmacies have been provided with federally distributed vaccines in which they are directed and encouraged to give COVID-19 vaccines to school staff and childcare workers immediately,” according to Lara’s released.

He noted that, according to Gov. Mike Parson, the “state vaccine” was not available until after March 15. “However, the ‘federal’ allotment can be given now if one can find a pharmacy funded by the federal allotment.”

According to Lara, as of a March 2 directive from President Joe Biden’s administration, the federal pharmacy program was making vaccinations available for school staff and childcare workers. More than 9,000 pharmacies nationwide are participating in the effort to administer at least the first dose of a vaccine to teachers and staff in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools and childcare programs by the end of March.

He supplied this link for additional online information (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/retail-pharmacy-program/index.html).

“We just wanted to make eligible school and childcare staff aware of this in the event they want to seek out the vaccine earlier then the state will allow us to give it,” Lara wrote in his press release. “Our (the Gasconade County Health Department’s) intention is to come to school to provide this as soon as we are able to” while adding this is pending “clearance from the state and available vaccine” supplies. 

“We are trying to get the vaccine the week this group is eligible,” he continued. “We continue to try and get as much vaccine as we can, however, the state has continued to reduce the amount that we are allowed to get at this time.” 

He initially thought it may be several weeks before the county health agency actually obtains these allotments of vaccines but a Gasconade County R-2 School District school official on Tuesday said they were scheduled for a vaccine clinic as early as March 19 (see story on page 1).

“If you have made other arrangements we completely understand as vaccine is never guaranteed and our goal is just to vaccinate as many people as efficiently possible,” Lara noted. 

The president’s directive states that all states prioritize school staff and childcare workers for COVID-19 vaccination and challenged states to get teachers, school staff and workers in childcare programs their first shot by the end of March.

The release of vaccines for the latest tier of eligible recipients comes as the state has updated its numbers of deaths due to the virus by 225 people.

The Bureau of Vital Records at Department of Health and Senior Services performs a weekly linkage between deaths to the state and death certificates to improve data quality and ensure all decedents that died of COVID-19 are reflected in the systems. 

On March 2, DHSS analyzed several death certificates and linked 225 COVID-19 associated deaths with the appropriate cases in the state’s disease surveillance system. 

These 225 deaths, which had not already been reported to the state by another entity, will be captured and reported publicly through the dashboard as of this morning (March 10). 

There were 153 deaths added to the list from January and 65 in February. Four were noted from December, one from November and two from October, according to the state health agency.