By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Doniphan County Health Department officials will hold a second pediatric vaccine clinic this afternoon for children and teens, ages five to 17.
County Health Director Sheryl Pierce says that the turnout for the first vaccine clinic was slightly under what was anticipated, but the department was still pleased.
"Well we were hoping to get at least a dozen kids, we did get 13 under the age of 11 and under, and we had one that came from 12-17 year old," Pierce tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So we were pleased about that, I don't know if it was a timing issue or if the word didn't get around is what we're hoping."
Pierce says the department is continuing to advertise that the vaccine is available for residents of the northeast Kansas county.
"To make sure all the parents in our county know and all the guardians know that we have this available to the kids," Pierce says.
Pierce says that anyone hesitant to get their children vaccinated, should know that the dose given to kids in that age range, is a completely different dose from the one given to adults.
"The pediatric dose is a complete different dose, it's not like we're just drawing a smaller amount up and using an adult dosage, there's less of the vaccine so to speak, in the doses we are giving the children, less milligrams of the actual COVID vaccine in the one that we give the children," Pierce explains.
Doniphan County health officials are hoping to get more students vaccinated with COVID vaccination clinics.
Last month, the Troy School District saw an outbreak that caused the positivity numbers in Doniphan County to surge.
Pierce says the numbers in the Troy school district have declined, but now they are seeing a surge in another school district.
"In the Troy school things are subsiding somewhat, now in the Doniphan West School, which is the western most school that we have in our county," Pierce says.
Pierce urges parents to hold their students home from school if they are ill at all, in hopes of slowing the spread.
"So we're hoping to have mitigation efforts there and hopefully that spread will stop," Pierce says. "Again reminding people don't send your children to school please, if they're ill at all, get them tested."
The Doniphan County Health Department will hold a second vaccination clinic this afternoon for kids age five through 17 from 3-6pm at the Doniphan County Health Department in Troy, KS.