FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                
 Date: December 30, 2020

CONTACT:     Joan Carr
Office: (901) 222-9010
 Cell:                 (901) 691-5704

SHELBY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT COVID-19 VACCINATIONS FOR FIRST RESPONDERS AND OTHER PRIORITY GROUPS 

CONTINUES TODAY, DECEMBER 30, 2020

SHELBY COUNTY, TN – The Shelby County Health Department today is vaccinating first responders and certain high-risk frontline health care workers deemed “1a1” in the Tennessee Department of Health’s COVID-19 Vaccination Plan listed here: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/cedep/novel-coronavirus/COVID-19_Vaccination_Plan.pdf.

The vaccines, being given at the two drive-thru vaccination sites in Shelby County, are currently only available to people who meet the following criteria.

• First responders with direct public exposure including EMS, law enforcement, and fire fighters
• Staff working at COVID-19 mass testing sites
• Staff and residents of long-term care facilities, residential homes for the aged and staff and residents of assisted living centers who have direct contact with residents or contact with potentially infectious materials
• Staff of other congregate care facilities such as homes for the intellectually or developmentally disabled, detention centers, Staff of Department of Children’s Services residential facilities, rehabilitation hospitals and psychiatric hospitals who have direct patient contact or contact with potentially infectious materials
• Home health care staff with direct patient contact
• Staff and residents of long-term care facilities, residential homes for the aged and staff and residents of assisted living centers who have direct contact with residents or contact with potentially infectious materials
• Providers of K-12 or university student health services who have direct patient contact or contact with potentially infectious materials

They are being contacted through their employer/facility and are required to sign up for an appointment on an online scheduling app, and they are asked to bring an employee badge or ID.  All those vaccinated receive instructions about when and where to return to receive their second dose of vaccine. 

Once vaccination of the Phase 1a1 groups has been completed, the Health Department and partnering agencies will begin the vaccination of the Phase 1a2 groups, which include other health care workers who have direct patient exposure. 

Shelby County Health Department is proud to be a part of this historic vaccination effort against COVID-19. For more information about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine, please visit our website: http://www.shelby.community/. 

-End-