Teachers Get Shots For School
Mercer Teachers Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Photo: Mercer County Health Department
A teacher with the Mercer County School District gets vaccinated at the Mercer County Health Department on Saturday, Jan. 23.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
rmoore@harrodsburgherald.com
Mercer County took a big step towards returning to normal this weekend. The Mercer County Health Department organized a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for educators with the Mercer County School District on Saturday, Jan. 23.
According to the health department’s Facebook page, they were able to vaccinate almost 400 people.
Mercer County school nurses Amanda Payton, Dana Warren, Kim Ellis and Christy Ransdell helped vaccinate staff. Also pitching in were students from the Trailblazer Academy’s HOSA chapter—Suly Smith, Issac Harder and Lauren Hayslett. Along with their teacher, Susan Readnower, they provided assistance throughout the day.
Superintendent Dennis Davis said the majority of staff signed up to be vaccinated. Davis said he hopes teachers can receive the second dose within three weeks
Last week, Davis told the Mercer County Board of Education that the district is still struggling to recruit substitute teachers, even after recently receiving permission to relax standards.
“It’s creating a real problem,” he said. Davis said every school is in the same situation.
School officials say they hope vaccinations will allow some former substitutes to return to work.
Over the last month, health care personnel, staff and patients at long term care facilities and first responders have been getting vaccinated.
So far, 261,707 doses have been administered by the state, with 47,105 going to long term care facilities, which have born the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While long term care facilities account for one-percent of the nation’s population, they account for 36-percent of the COVID-19 deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
As of Monday, Jan. 25, there were 249 active cases of COVID-19 in Mercer County, according to the health department’s Facebook page, with 1,403 people listed as having recovered.
So far, 38 Mercer County residents have died.
Across Kentucky, there were 347,836 active cases, according to the Kentucky Department of Public Health, with 1,268 new cases reported Monday.
According to the state, 39 new deaths were reported Monday, raising the official death toll to 3,460.
