The director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department said the COVID-19 vaccine is slowly starting to flow into the community.
Clay Goddard told Springfield City Council Tuesday he expects the health department will be able to vaccinate the rest of group 1A this week with doses they just received. Those include frontline healthcare workers.
He hopes they’ll get enough shipments of the vaccine to be able to move on to those in group 1B next week, specifically first responders. Group 1B also includes anyone 65 and older and those with certain health conditions. Goddard said he expects people who fall into those categories to get the vaccine from their healthcare providers.
Goddard predicted that it will be at least eight weeks before the vaccine is available to the general public. That’s because there are almost three million people in the high-risk tier, 1B, he said.
You can sign up to receive vaccine updates from the health department at health.springfieldmo.gov/finishstrong. You can also be put on an automated phone list by calling 417-874-1211.
Goddard said they continue to watch the London variant of COVID-19 closely. “We believe it’s a question of when it will arrive in Missouri not if,” he said.
COVID-19 numbers have been lower in recent days, and Goddard hopes that won’t cause residents to become complacent.
He said everyone needs to continue to take preventive measures, including washing hands, wearing face coverings and social distancing.
