Free drive-through COVID-19 vaccinations will soon be offered under a large tent being constructed in the parking lot of the Leflore County Health Department building on Browning Road.
Jonathan Chaney, a Mississippi State Health Department regional administrator for the Northern Public Health Region, said Wednesday the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will be administered first to health care workers two days a week — Mondays and Thursdays — beginning Jan. 4.
Later, vaccines will also be administered to members of the general public, Chaney said, adding that the same drive-through will also offer COVID-19 testing.
Details about the vaccinations, as to what times health care workers can show up to be inoculated as well as how to sign up, are still being determined, Chaney said.
He is scheduled to speak at Monday’s meeting of the Leflore County Board of Supervisors.
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 the second vaccine to gain FDA approval to offer protection against the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of more than 320,000 Americans.
On Tuesday, 200 of Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s workers received the Moderna vaccination. The vaccine requires two shots — a priming dose followed by a booster shot.
Leflore County Chancery Clerk and County Administrator Johnny Gary worked with the supervisors as well as Chaney to help get the county’s vaccine drive-through set up.
“It’s always a good day for Leflore County whenever we can do something to help our citizens,” Gary said Wednesday as he checked on the drive-through tent.
Robert Collins, president of the Board of Supervisors, said he hopes people in the county will get vaccinated in order to put the pandemic “behind us.”
•Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
