COVID-19 Vaccinations in North County
Are Slowly Underway; County DPH Ready

By Pat Lindsey

The demand for COVID-19 vaccinations in North County continues to outweigh the current supply of vaccine, but St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley and the St. Louis County Department of Public Health in Berkeley are ready to administer every dose they receive.
Four area hospital systems–BJC, SSM, Mercy, and St. Luke’s–are also vaccinating health care workers, emergency responders, people over 65, and people with specific underlying health conditions by appointment only.
Online pre-registration is the fastest and easiest way to get in line for your first immunization. (See list of websites and more COVID information for Missouri in the hospital-sponsored advertorial on page 8.)
If you do not have online access or need some assistance, you can call the health care systems or public health department. The phone number for St. Louis County registration is 314-615-2660. Be prepared for busy signals.
After you are pre-registered, you will eventually be notified by e-mail, a phone call, or your electronic medical chart (such as myChart) to set up an appointment. (The pre-registration form allows you to state how you would like to be notified.) You will likely get messages from time to time to inform you that you are still on the waiting list and not forgotten. Appointments will be made only when vaccine is available.
St. Louis County has ramped up quickly to be able to give up to 4,000 vaccinations daily. Due to a lack of vaccine, slightly more than 10,000 vaccinations have been given to date.
St. Louis County DPH has not received shipments from the state for the past two weeks and an announcement from County Executive Sam Page late Monday reported that no more vaccines are expected until the end the week. (See latest information in story below.)
In its dedication to expanding vaccine reach in St. Louis County, DPH is working with hospital systems to obtain doses, and received 3,900 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from a local hospital partner, allowing it to open the mass vaccination site at FV Community College and to begin offering shots in three fire districts (Affton, Eureka and Mehlville) as of Feb. 4.

St. Louis County Waiting For More
Vaccines to Arrive From State DHSS

St. Louis County, well-equipped to provide vaccines to at least 5,000 people per week, is instead facing a possible pause in its efforts due to a lack of vaccine supply from the state.
The state previously announced it would provide weekly supplies of the vaccine, but St. Louis County was entering its third week on Monday without a new supply from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The county did reach agreement Monday with local hospital groups to receive 1,950 doses later this week.
The St. Louis County Department of Public Health was scheduled to run out of vaccine doses on Tuesday (Feb 9) . Unless more vaccine is made available from DHSS, the broad community access to the vaccine that DPH provides may have to be paused.
“St. Louis County continues to be uncertain when and whether it will receive vaccine doses,” said County Executive Dr. Sam Page. “This makes it incredibly difficult to
plan a distribution network and effectively communicate with those who have signed up and are anxiously awaiting an appointment.”
“More importantly,” added Dr. Page, “it puts at further risk the population DPH serves, including people who are uninsured or underinsured, people who do not have a primary care physician, and others who are uniquely at-risk and vulnerable to COVID-19. Many of the people who need the vaccine the most, simply will not have access to the vaccine.”
Last week, DPH expanded its vaccination operation, opening four additional sites for a total of five. The County now offers vaccinations at John C. Murphy Heath Center in Berkeley; the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College in Ferguson; and the fire districts in Affton, Eureka and Mehlville.
As a result, last week alone, DPH was able to vaccinate about 5,100 people. That is significantly higher than the 2,500 vaccinated during the previous week.

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