The Jefferson County Health Department and Comtrea are both closing the COVID-19 vaccine distribution centers they recently leased.
Officials from both agencies said they’re closing the centers because interest in getting the COVID-19 vaccine is on the decline.
Comtrea CEO Sue Curfman said Jefferson County residents’ recent lack of interest in getting the vaccine is not unique.
“This is certainly a trend,” she said. “What we’re seeing, certainly here and nationally, is we now have a glut of vaccines and not enough people seeking it.”
Curfman said she is not 100 percent sure why vaccine demand has gone down, but questions about safety and necessity might be a factor.
“We’re kind of lulled into a false sense that it’s no longer necessary because we have seen the (COVID-19 case) numbers go down,” she said.
Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar said she also has seen the number of registrations for COVID-19 vaccines decrease.
“At this point in time, the majority of the demand is going to be met by the end of May, in terms of these mass clinics,” Vollmar said. “Once we get through the second doses, it’s anticipated the people who wanted the vaccine will have gotten it and now we’re getting to the portion of the public that really has some hesitancy.”
Curfman said she hopes to see people continue to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I realize that getting a vaccine is a personal choice, but my word of encouragement and request is to get the vaccine for you and your family,” she said. “I truly believe getting the vaccine is a powerful step in taking charge of your own individual health.”
Curfman said people should get the vaccine to help others, too.
“The more people who get the vaccine, the sooner vulnerable people can get out and feel safer,” she said. “We’re part of a community and you may be young and healthy, but people you interact with may not be.”
Comtrea
On June 2, Comtrea, which also provides health care services around the county, will close the center it opened at 2120 Tenbrook Road in Arnold, after holding just two COVID-19 vaccine clinics there.
Nathanael Herbert, Comtrea marketing communications manager, said 87 people received a dose at the center on April 27, and 20 people got one there on May 4.
He said those who received their first dose at the Tenbrook location will receive the second dose there.
“We had just a very low turnout for individuals seeking vaccines,” Curfman said. “We were hopeful that even moving into walk-in (appointments) would help, but it did not.”
Herbert said moving forward, all COVID-19 vaccines will be by appointment only at either the Arnold office, 21 Municipal Drive; the Festus office, 110 N. Mill St.; the High Ridge office, 324 Emerson Road; or the Hillsboro office, 4 Hickory Ridge Road, Suite 600.
Comtrea chief operations officer Lisa Rothweiler said even though Comtrea is closing the center, the agency will still have to continue paying the six-month lease, which began in April and is $5,833.33 a month. She said the lease is being paid for with grant funds.
She said if vaccine interest picks back up the center could be reopened.
In April, Arnold city officials granted Comtrea permission to operate a temporary immunization center in the 7,000-square-foot building in a shopping plaza off Jeffco Boulevard and Tenbrook Road that used to house a fitness and martial arts center.
Jefferson County Health Department
On June 15, the Health Department will close its temporary COVID-19 vaccination center housed in a 60,000-square-foot building at 1275 N. Truman Blvd. in Festus that used to house a Schnucks store and before that a Shop ’n’ Save store.
The last clinic at the center will be June 1. It will be a second-dose clinic for people who received a first vaccine dose on May 4, the Health Department said in a written statement.
Moving forward, the Health Department will focus on smaller vaccine clinics, which will be held at its High Ridge office, 5684 Hwy. PP, and mobile clinics using the department’s vans.
As of Monday, the Health Department had distributed 8,224 vaccine doses at the rented site in Festus. That makes up 39.6 percent of 20,758 vaccines the department had administered, the Health Department reported.
Suzy Davis, a member of the Health Department Board of Trustees, recently complained that the vaccination clinic wasn’t needed. She said she had not seen the vaccine facility herself, but had heard from others that the facility was not busy.
“I don’t see why our county should be wasting tax dollars for that particular facility,” she said.
Vollmar said after June, the Health Department won’t have to pay the remainder of its lease, which costs $4,000 a month and originally was set to end in September. She also said the lease is covered by CARES Act funding.
Despite ending the lease early, Vollmar said she has found the site valuable.
“It’s definitely a success in terms of accomplishing what was needed, which was to get a large amount of vaccine into the community in a very short period of time,” she said.
The facility opened on April 1 and vaccinated 840 people that first day and 1,030 the following day. A total of 440 people were vaccinated on April 6, another 919 on April 7, 410 on April 12, 470 on April 13, 260 on April 20, 200 on April 21 and 196 on April 28.
The Health Department Board of Trustees voted 3-1 in March to lease the facility for six months, with Chairperson Dennis Diehl and board members Tim Pigg and James Prater voting yes and Davis voting no. Board member Amber Henry was absent from the meeting.
In addition, the trustees agreed to hire a temporary staffing agency to provide 60 employees to staff the site. Again, Davis cast the only no vote.
Vollmar said it would have cost between $70,000 and $85,000 a month to pay the temporary employees, but any pay for that staff would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
However, Vollmar said because of the large number of volunteers, the Health Department did not have to hire many temporary staff members.
The Health Department hired three vaccinators – a registered nurse at $60 an hour and two licensed practical nurses at $48 an hour. As of May 4, though, Vollmar said those three temporary employees had not worked.
She said two temporary clerical employees were hired and paid $17.16 an hour. As of May 2, together the two had worked a total of 62.75 hours, said Brianne Zwiener, the Health Department’s communications specialist.
Vollmar said people from AmeriCorps, Jefferson College, the National Guard, and the State Emergency Management Agency volunteered at the clinics.
“This location has served its intended purpose and we are grateful to Jones Festus Properties, Missouri National Guard, the cities of Festus and Crystal City, and our volunteers and staff for their partnership and dedication,” Vollmar said.
First-hand experience at Festus site
Patricia Klaverkamp, 58, of Barnhart, who got both her COVID-19 vaccine doses at the Health Department’s Festus vaccination center, said she was happy the site was available.
“We (her and her husband) were actually scheduled to do it at Barnes, and this was just closer to home and a few days earlier,” she said.
Klaverkamp said on both visits to Festus site, on April 5 and May 3, it felt “organized.”
She said she decided to be vaccinated to help protect others.
“I think that is what’s needed in order to help bring this under control,” she said.
Klaverkamp said after waiting two weeks after receiving her second dose, she hopes to take a vacation to Florida.
Ryan Carey, 48, of High Ridge used the Health Department’s drive-up options at the Festus vaccine distribution center on May 3.
“Just a lot of people in there, and I don’t feel comfortable,” he said.
Carey said he decided to get a COVID-19 vaccine because he “felt it was the right thing to do.”
He said after waiting two weeks following his last dose of the vaccine, he hopes to get together with family and possibly take a vacation to a beach in Florida.
The Health Department uses its three mobile vans purchased last year with CARES Act funding for drive-up clinics.
Vollmar said together the three vans cost $527,584, which included the vehicles and all medical equipment inside.
She said one van is a mobile lab, which cost $175,898, and the other two are set up for mobile vaccine distribution, and each one of those cost $175,843.
“Once we get through COVID, then we would be able to utilize (the vans) for other things, such as maybe school immunizations, or things along that line,” Vollmar said.
She said most types of testing can be completed inside the mobile lab, like COVID-19 and flu testing.