Westport, Weston set up COVID vaccine clinics
WESTPORT — Hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents became eligible for the COVID vaccine Monday, including educators, and hundreds will be able to get their shots as early as this week.
Westport Superintendent Thomas Scarice said Westport schools will be hosting a clinic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday for public school employees in Westport, Weston and Easton.
As of Friday there was a minimum of 500 doses available for this clinic, with 250 allocated for Westport, 125 for Weston and 125 for Easton, Scarice said, adding this could increase depending on what the state supplies.
“It could be more,” Scarice said. “The state indicated the supply might be growing.”
The health district procures, stores and then distributes the vaccine to the school district for the clinic. Scarice said that since Mark Cooper, the health district’s director, was already responsible for getting the vaccine for Westport, Weston and Easton, it made sense to do the clinic together to send a strong signal to the state they were making a real, collaborative effort to vaccinate as many school employees as possible.
“The health district is a critical player here,” he said.
The Westport Weston Health District is hosting its own clinic for those eligible.
“The WWHD continues to work with our community partners including Westport's Center for Senior Activities, Weston Senior Center, and Easton Senior Center to vaccinate individuals who are 55 and older,” Cooper said.
“The WWHD is committed to vaccinating as many eligible individuals as possible but we are limited by the number of available doses.”
Cooper said the district will add more clinic appointments as doses become available.
“The health district places orders each week — including a supply for educators now — however, the allotment requested does not always match the amount received,” he
said. “The state of Connecticut dictates allocation to towns. We are hopeful that the health district's allocation will increase over the coming weeks.”
He said Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine being approved for emergency use should also help meet the demand.
Wednesday’s clinic is just for the public schools. While the district is helping the private schools, those clinics will
be done through the health district, Scarice said.
Westport Public Schools has about 1,000 employees with even more school bus drivers and volunteers who could be eligible under the vaccine plan. Those eligible are able to sign up for any clinic, but Scarice estimates about 2/3 of the district’s employees will be vaccinated through a district clinic.
He said the districts are
following the state’s lead and prioritizing vaccinations based on age.
“We’re tiering it that way,” Scarice said.
Some employees have already been vaccinated based on previous eligible groups and he anticipates they’ll be able to do through those at least 45 years old on Wednesday. He said they could even expand into the next age band if supply allows.
Scarice commended John Bayers, the human
resources director, and Suzanne Levasseur, the health services supervisor, for being able to plan, staff and invite eligible employees for a clinic in a matter of three days.
Westport school nurses will be administering the vaccine and school staff will be doing the data entry for the intake so they can vaccinate as many people as possible in four hours, he said.