Stephens County School System staff will receive 2nd dose of COVID vaccine on Friday

The staff of all Stephens County Schools will get their second dose of the COVID vaccine on Friday.

The vaccine clinic will be held at Stephens County High School, in the atrium and old gym, from 3:30 until 6:00 p.m.

During the first vaccine clinic, Stephens County School Superintendent Dr. Daniel Oldham said they were able to vaccinate the school systems’ staff members with the help of Stephens County Hospital.

He says when Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced that school staff would be eligible for the COVID Vaccine he began working with Stephens County Hospital’s Vice President of Physician Practices Van Loskoski to organize the vaccine drive.

“We are vaccinating educators today, and the hospital reached out to us, just before the Governor made the announcement that they were going to extend the vaccine to educators and to all staff of school systems, and so we did some preplanning to line this up. Because the more people we can vaccinate the better we are to be open. It’s been a herculean effort. I’m so thankful that we have such a great hospital and a great health department and community partners that are working well with us and supporting us as a school system to be open. This is a good step to us getting back to normal,” Oldham said.

Loskoski says the vaccine drive is a big effort; but, the response has been great.

“When the vaccine started rolling out, Daniel and I started talking early on about when it opens up to teachers, how would we roll something like that out. Teachers have been waiting long enough—not just teachers, but all of your educational staff. So, we wanted to make sure we could knock out as many people as possible. We’ve got 20 different people from the hospital here in different phases. We’re expected to do somewhere around 300 folks today. We’re glad our educators are finally getting to have the vaccine and we’re excited to do it and that so many people have been open to getting it,” Loskoski said.

Stephens County Hospital Chief Executive Officer Mike Hester says through the efforts of Oldham and Loskoski the vaccine drive will go a long way in protecting the community.

“This is a great event for the community, and it is always great to witness this type of collaboration between local organizations that have such a major impact on our community. Dr. Daniel Oldham the superintendent, and our Vice President of Physician Practices Van Loskoski have spent some time getting this organized and did a great job. These vaccines are a critical component in the fight against this virus, and to getting our community, our state, and our country back to a sense of normalcy. We’re just proud of the Stephens County Hospital team for being on the forefront for providing COVID testing and vaccinations for our community. We are committed to keeping our community safe and well. I want to give a special thanks to our staff for always volunteering and making these vaccine drives a huge success,” he said.

Hester also offered thanks to the Toccoa Falls College Nursing Students who volunteered to help administer the vaccines.

Again, the second dose will be administered on April 2, from 3:30 until 6:00 p.m. at the Atrium and Old Gym located at Stephens County High School.