Peoria County Holds First H1N1 Vaccination Clinic

Hundreds of residents from Peoria and Marshall County lined up for an H1N1 Clinic underway in Chillicothe Monday evening.

After several delays in shipments the first allotment of H1N1 vaccines are finally getting out to the public.

Peoria County Health Department officials say they've had ample time to get ready for the H1N1 clinic after delays in getting the vaccine.

Ten–thousand doses of the H1N1 vaccine arrived in Peoria last Thursday at the Peoria County Health Department.

Health Department Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Jason Marks says they've been notified that more shipments of the vaccine will arrive each week. As a result they are scheduling more clinics throughout the month and into December.

He says while they expect long lines, staff and volunteers will try to facilitate the process for residents and children getting vaccines.

"More importantly with respect to mass vaccinations or mass dispensing of medication is the support staff, those individuals that can support those RNs, that are actually doing the vaccinations, the runners, the people who do inventory, the registration staff, the clerks," said Marks.

Target groups who will be able to get the vaccine include pregnant women, household contacts and caregivers to infants under 6 months, all people from six months to 24 years old, and those 24–to–65 who are more susceptible to flu complications.

Health Department officials say they expect to give out about 15–hundred doses of the vaccine depending upon how long the lines are it could be more.

More clinics are being held this week at various locations.

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