BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Health leaders in Wood County now have a plan in place to get educators and school staff vaccinated, as the process is set to begin the week of Feb. 15.
Over the last month, the Wood County Health Department has been working with its local school districts to create a plan for COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
Currently, the majority of employees will get their shots on Friday, Feb. 19. But, Wood County Health Commissioner, Ben Robison said the rollout for the vaccine varies for public and private schools.
"For private schools, they are also shooting for that day, for the most part. But, their times may be a little different than that because they're still planning to deliver education like they normally do day-to-day," Robison said.
Public schools are planning to have a virtual learning day on the Friday employees get vaccinated; a decision that was made by school leaders to help avoid staff calling out in the middle of the week.
"What the schools talked about is if they do it on a Friday, then if somebody does have some of those things that can happen after a vaccine - a headache, fatigue - and they have personnel who might want to call off of work, they can just sleep it off on Saturday and Sunday and be ready to go by Monday," he said.
Robison said teachers planning to get the vaccine should not be seeking appointments outside of what their district is setting up for them.
"We're directing all school personnel to work through their schools to be vaccinated," the health commissioner said. "Providers in Wood County who get appointments from teachers or other school staff who say that they work in the Wood County system will have those appointments turned down."
Robison said more information for school personnel will be coming, but if you have questions, they should be directed to your school district.
WTOL reached out to Lucas County about its vaccination strategy for K-12 employees, however, health leaders said their plans have not yet been finalized.