County plans to begin teacher vaccinations Feb. 24

ROCKINGHAM — Next week, Richmond County Schools plans to begin providing COVID-19 vaccines for childcare workers and school staff on their first day they will be eligible — Feb. 24 — at Richmond Senior High School.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Feb. 10 that educators and support staff will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine starting Feb. 24. It’s a part of a staggered rollout of the state’s distribution. The school system will partner with FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Richmond, the Richmond County Health Department, and Smart Start to vaccinate this new group, according to Emily Sloan, a director of public relations for FirstHealth.

Feb. 24 and March 4, are tentatively scheduled as days that school staff and other childcare workers can receive the shot. These dates are contingent on the vaccines arriving safely in Richmond County. Health Director Tommy Jarrell said no vaccines have been delivered as of Friday afternoon.

“There were delays in vaccine shipment this week due to the winter weather impacting many areas of the country,” Sloan said. “We’re hopeful vaccine deliveries will resume next week as planned.”

RSHS was chosen as the facility because parking and congestion will not be an issue. Assuming all goes to plan, vaccinations will begin at 10 a.m. and the last appointment at the moment is 4:30 p.m.

So far, 550 employees of Richmond County Schools have signed up to receive the vaccine out of a total of 1,096 employees of the school system, according Dr. Wendy Jordan, director of student services. Jordan sends the number of individuals who have signed up for the vaccine to the health department every day, which she says has been on the rise. Individuals who have already received the vaccine elsewhere are removed from the list.

Individuals have been able to sign up through a link, and can continue to sign up through the mass vaccination event.

There will be no students in the school on Wednesday because it is a remote learning day.

Beyond RCS, any childcare workers and providers will also be eligible for the shot. This includes day care and private school employees.

“They’ll be in the mix as well and signing up just like we are,” said Jordan.

Jordan said the consensus seems to be if enough people get the vaccine, the quicker our community can get back to normal. She emphasized that RCS will continue to have social distancing and masks for the foreseeable future.

“I think folks are really looking forward to it,” Jordan said. “(Superintendent Jeff Maples) is encouraged because more people have signed up after the initial sign-up. They have access to information and everyone is encouraged to do their own research and decide if this is right for them. More and more people have decided that they would like to receive the vaccine and that is encouraging.”