Columbus school vaccine clinics start next week
Columbus City Schools will begin offering free COVID-19 vaccines to high school students on Monday in partnership with Nationwide Children's Hospital.
The effort will span four schools across the city – Beechcroft, Briggs, Independence and Whetstone – with district-provided busing for students who attend any of the district's 15 other high schools, which won't have vaccination clinics on site.
The goal is to vaccinate 6,000 children, district spokeswoman Jacqueline Bryant said. Students will receive their shots during the school day, from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Any student age 16 or older is eligible, including students who attend the district's fully online digital academy, she said. The district has about 8,000 total eligible students. Families will receive an email with instructions on how to register their children for an appointment time using an online system. They will also need to sign a permission form for students younger than 18.
The clinic dates are: April 26 and 27 for students in “cohort A” and April 29 and 30 for students in “cohort B.” They'll return in three weeks for their second vaccine doses on May 17 and 18 and May 20 and 21, respectively.
All Columbus City Schools buildings have been on a “blended learning” schedule for at least a month. That means every class is divided into two cohorts that attend classes twice each week and complete classwork from home the other three days.
Nationwide Children's Hospital has hosted clinics in more than a dozen Franklin County schools since April 7 to help provide teens age 16, 17 and 18 with Pfizer-biontech vaccinations.
Other districts with upcoming clinics are Dublin, South-western, Reynoldsburg, Hamilton and Canal Winchester, hospital spokeswoman Katelyn Hanzel said. Those first doses will all be finished by April 30.
As of Tuesday, nearly 38% of Ohioans had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 27% were fully vaccinated. Of those groups, about 4.4% and 1%, respectively, were age 1619.
Of the three vaccines available in the U.S., the two-dose shot from American drug company Pfizer and its German partner Biontech is the only one currently approved for people younger than 18. The two doses are administered at least three weeks apart.
Nobody younger than 16 can be vaccinated yet, though, because clinical trials for those age groups aren't finished for any vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccines are free because the federal government is providing the vaccine to all people living in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Columbus City Schools Superintendent Talisa Dixon will answer questions about the district's upcoming clinics on Thursday in a virtual meeting at 6 p.m., with representatives of Nationwide Children's Hospital and Columbus Public Health.
Families can register at ccsoh.us/ rsvp. awidmanneese@dispatch.com @Alissawidman
The goal is to vaccinate 6,000 children, district spokeswoman Jacqueline Bryant said. Students will receive their shots during the school day, from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.