Henry County shifts to regular clinics for COVID vaccines

The Henry County Public Health Department is ending its mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin told the Board of Supervisors Thursday morning that her department is shifting to regular vaccination clinics.

“The big clinics are over,” Van Dorin said. “We are doing normal immunization clinics now.”

Beginning this month, the COVID-19 vaccine will be available at the department’s regular immunization clinics on Tuesdays, 9-11 a.m.; Wednesdays and Thursdays, 1-4 p.m.; and the first and third Thursdays of each month, 1-6 p.m.

“Anyone wanting a shot can come in and get one,” Van Dorin said.

Currently, the clinics at the health department offer the Moderna and the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Those two vaccines are only approved for use in people age 18 and over.

Van Dorin said that they do not have the storage capacity for the Pfizer vaccine, which is now approved for use in people age 12 and up.

The department’s website says that the Pfizer vaccine is available at the Mt. Pleasant Hy-Vee pharmacy.

Van Dorin reported that there has been talk that the Moderna vaccine will soon be approved for people as young as 12 years old.

“If they get Moderna approved, we would be able to get into schools this fall,” she said.