By Matt Pike
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph Health Department clinic will be traveling off-site this week, prompting a change in hours the next three days.
The department’s Stephanie Malita says these closures will only affect the clinic and not the other parts of the department. The clinic will be closed on all day today, tomorrow until 1pm and then Thursday starting at 11am, for the rest of the day.
Malita says the clinic will be traveling to continue a service offered this past summer, for businesses interested in getting the COVID-19 vaccine for employees.
"We are going off site to a workplace to offer COVID-19 vaccine to employees, and we've done this periodically throughout the spring and summer as workplaces have contacted us wanting to offer the vaccine to their employees," Malita tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post
Malita says the number of area residents who have initiated vaccination in the area has remained steady. And Malita says compared to the number of calls received when the vaccinations began, it is disappointing more residents haven’t gotten vaccinated. . .
"Back in January and February, we were getting calls of when is my tier going to open up, and I want to get vaccinated," Malita explains. "And then as tiers began to open up we didn't see the demand meet our expectations based on the phone calls we had been getting earlier."
The number of individuals that have initiated vaccination in the area has remained steady, which Malita says is disappointing.
Malita says those who get vaccinated have more flexibility , especially when running in and out of the store, and also for those times around people for an extended period.
"We have said all along that it's an extended exposure, kind of a 15 minute time frame, that if you're around somebody for that length of time and you find out that within a couple days of you having been around them that they've tested positive, that's when you're looking at a quarantine if you're not vaccinated," Malita says.
Malita adds that another benefit of getting the vaccination is that in some workplaces, someone vaccinated does not have to quarantine.