FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                
 Date: December 31, 2020

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

SHELBY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT COVID-19 VACCINATION UPDATE
 Funeral and Mortuary Workers Now Eligible for Vaccine & Change in Vaccine Locations

SHELBY COUNTY, TN – The Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) today continues 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. 

Those qualified to receive vaccine are being contacted through their employer/facility and are required to sign up for an appointment on an online scheduling app. They are also asked to bring an employee badge or ID.  

Due to adverse weather conditions forecast, the Lindenwood Christian Church drive-thru site will be closed tomorrow. All those with appointments at either of the Health Department’s drive-thru vaccination sites are asked to report to 1826 Sycamore View Road at their appointed time. The vaccinations will be given inside the Health Department’s facility. 

SCHD today has added funeral/mortuary workers who have direct contact with decedents to the list of those who may sign up for vaccination. Those workers are being contacted through their employers. 

Here is the complete list of priority groups who are eligible for vaccination today:

• Funeral/mortuary workers with direct contact with decedents
• 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
• Individuals > 18 years or older who cannot live independently due to serious chronic medical condition or intellectual or developmental disability
• Providers of K-12 or university student health services who have direct patient contact or contact with potentially infectious materials

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/. 

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