PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — With just 4 days until School Exclusion Day, Multnomah County health officials hosted a catch-up vaccine clinic to get students immunized.
On Wednesday the county helped administer 230 student vaccines but continue to work closing the gap as Exclusion Day approaches. On February 15, all children who are not up-to-date or complete on their immunizations will be excluded from their school or child care facility.
Multnomah County hosted the third of 4 special clinics on Saturday at the David Douglas School District. There were 50 appointments for the Saturday clinic, which does not include the walk-ins they accepted.
More than 100,000 students are expected to meet school immunization requirements each year. Already this year, county officials said 5600 exclusion warnings were sent to families last week.
Dr. Ann Loeffler, a Multnomah County health officer, said she hopes these low barrier clinics can help bridge that gap and keep kids in school.
“So many of the diseases that are preventable by vaccines we’ve almost eliminated, so people don’t recognize that they still have a lot of value. Some of the diseases are still quite prevalent,” Loeffler told KOIN 6 News. “Obviously, we still see a fair bit of whooping cough, we see a lot of measles in certain circumstances, flu, COVID, so those vaccines really keep the whole school community safe.”
With Exclusion Day looming, the county is hosting another free clinic at West Gresham Elementary School from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The clinics are available for children between the ages of 5 and 18, with COVID vaccines offered to students 5-and-older.
In addition to the county’s pop-up clinics, there are several other low- or no-cost child immunizations available. For details, visit the Multnomah County Vaccination Clinics page.