County Health Department Ready For Covid Booster Shots

If Covid-19 vaccine booster shots begin to roll out around September 20, as is the federal government’s current plan, Somerset County will be ready.

That was the word September 1 from Michael McCarty, the County health department’s liaison to the township’s Advisory Board of Health. McCarty told the Board at its regular meeting that the County has dosages of all three vaccines.

“We have enough vaccine,” he said.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services decided in August that vaccine booster shots should be given in the fall, contingent on a federal Food and Drug Administration study proving their efficacy and dosage recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Our top priority remains staying ahead of the virus and protecting the American people from COVID-19 with safe, effective, and long-lasting vaccines especially in the context of a constantly changing virus and epidemiologic landscape,” a team of HHS public health and medical experts said in a press release on August 18.

McCarty said that unlike the original rollout of the Covid vaccines in the county, there probably will be no megasite inoculation centers, with the County using pop-up clinics instead.

“We’re going to have clinics basically five days a week,” he said. “We still have the regular Bridgewater clinics on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, then every single day a clinic has been at one of our other towns.”

Current plans are to recommend vaccinated people get the booster eight months after they were fully vaccinated.

“Come September 20, we can start rolling that out in our clinics,” he said.

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