The Leflore County Board of Supervisors has learned more about plans for the drive-through COVID-19 vaccinations that will soon be delivered to health care workers.
Chaney
Jonathan Chaney, a Mississippi State Department of Health administrator for the Northern Public Health Region, spoke to the board Monday and delivered more information on the Moderna vaccine that will be given to health care workers two days a week, beginning Jan. 4, in the parking lot of the Leflore County Health Department building on Browning Road.
The drive-through will be active from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays with space for 200 recipients a day “for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Chaney added that an online appointment portal to sign up for the vaccine will open up sometime in the middle of the week through a link on the Health Department’s website at www.msdh.ms.gov.
Chaney also explained that Greenwood is one of just 18 locations chosen by the state to provide this service. The next closest will be in Greenville and Batesville. Workers from the surrounding area will travel to the Leflore County location for the vaccine.
This first round, named Phase 1A, Chaney said, is exclusive for those working in medical facilities.
He said this excludes the Greenwood Leflore Hospital as well as long-term care facilities, as those locations will have their own supply of vaccines.
Last week, 200 workers at the hospital received the Moderna vaccination, which requires two shots — a priming dose followed by a booster shot about one month later.
Chaney could not provide information about when the vaccine could be administered to members of the general public.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for distribution the Moderna vaccine, which was developed in partnership with the National Institutes of Health. It is one of two vaccines that have gained FDA approval to offer protection against the coronavirus.
Chaney said the other vaccine made by Pfizer Inc., an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation, and its German partner BioNTech may soon be available through pharmacies such as CVS or Walgreens, but he said he only had information on the Moderna vaccine at this time.
• Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. On Twitter at @AdamBakst_GWCW.
