The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
VACCINATION STATION
Vaccination clinic at Lakeland is a local partnership hub
For the last two months, Lakeland Community College has been a central location for a vaccination clinic, said Chris Loxterman, environmental health supervisor at the Lake County General Health District.
“Today (May 15) is our first walk in, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine clinic,” Loxterman said. “It was scheduled for roughly 400 to 450 people and up to 500, so people could either sign up or they walk in.
This is the first time we’ve offered a big clinic for the Janssen vaccine, but this is the first we’ve had the opportunity to have a clinic this size for the Janssen.”
With the majority of the health district clinics, a 10% no show rate has been the constant average, Loxterman said.
“I think some of the hold offs are starting to show up at today’s clinic and we’re going to have clinics on daily basis that are walk in available at the health district going forward,” Loxterman said.
Amid people being encouraged to be vaccinated, the majority believe in getting the vaccine, Loxterman said, but some are still holding out see where things play out, especially the younger demographic.
“There’s been some clinics where we have a really good attendance - better than 90%,” Loxterman said. “There are some variables that are coincided with that. Some of it has to do with what we’re offering for a vaccine, and the way we register people and the way some of that information is shown.”
Not everyone who registers to come to the clinic goes through the health district’s website, so if they went through the website, they can see what is being offered, Loxterman said. If they go through ArmorVax, it does not show what the vaccine is.
“We try to make sure they walk away knowing when the next clinic is and what vaccine,” Loxterman said. “With the governor changing some things, and the masks and the social distancing, we certainly want people to still be cautious and be smart about how they go about getting back into this. It’s going to be a slower process to wean ourselves into what we felt was normal. We’re still going to offer the vaccines and do what we can. It’s never going to be too late.”
People anywhere from ages 16 to 101 have been vaccinated, said Dyan Denmeade, director of nursing and clinical services. In regard to the trends that follow the vaccine, a decrease has been noticed, she said.
“We’ve done about 56% of the eligible population in the entire county and that now includes 12 to 15, which just started,” Denmeade said. “If you go by the demographics, I believe it’s 65 and up is at 80% and vaccinated
fully in Lake County. So, we’re just hitting the saturation point.”
Additionally, there has been much focus on the second shot rates, with the state average being between 10% and 20% of people who are not coming to get their second shot, Denmeade said.
“We’re averaging less than 2% of people who are not showing up to their scheduled second dose clinic,” Denmeade said. “So, there are people who rescheduled their second dose, which is why it’s less than 2%. The kids who should have come last Friday — most of them rescheduled because of prom, but they got their second doses at their schools this week.”
The vaccination effort would not happen without the local fire departments and EMS, Loxterman said.
“Today, you see people working from the Lake County Health Department, local fire departments and our Ohio Department of Health nursing on loan to us,” Loxterman said. “We’ve had great, local partnership with every location we’ve had a clinic at, whether it be Wickliffe or all the way out to Perry.”
Not only has Lakeland been central location for people, but with it comes a large parking availability, as well as being handicapped friendly, Loxterman said.
“We also have Laketran grabbing people who may have a hard time walking. Lakeland has been awesome to work with. They’ve been more than accommodating,” Loxterman said. “What you see in here has been set up for the last two months, so they’ve given up their gym so we can do these clinics. I think for the majority of the population in our county, I think it works really well. Even for those who may be coming from out of the county because they see that it’s open or within driving range.”