Private healthcare providers in the Falls Church area are starting to receive the H1N1 vaccine according to an update on the Falls Church City Public Schools web site. In addition, the Fairfax County Health Department is expected to receive additional H1N1 vaccine doses later this week.
People are encouraged to check with their personal family doctor about the availability of the latest vaccine.
The release from the FCCPS is as follows:
We just received word from the Fairfax County Health Department that private healthcare providers in our area are starting to receive H1N1 vaccine. You may want to check with your family doctor’s office to see if it is available there now.
In addition, the health department expects to receive additional H1N1 vaccine doses sometime this week. Once the number of doses has been determined, the health department will determine whether it has enough vaccine to expand the target group at vaccination clinics.
In the meantime, The Fairfax County Health Department, which serves Falls Church City, has expanded its H1N1 vaccine target group to include the following:
Children age 6 months to 6 years
Pregnant women
Parents of infants who are younger than 6 months of age.
The vaccines are being offered at the health department’s five locations this Wednesday, November 5th and Thursday, November 6th. The clinics will open on these days at 8:00 a.m. and will have the capacity to vaccinate up to 300 people each day. Falls Church City residents may be vaccinated at any of the Fairfax County clinic locations, including the Falls Church clinic located at 6245 Leesburg Pike, Suite 500, Falls Church, VA 22044-2106. No appointment is necessary, and the vaccine is free of charge. Please note the Falls Church clinic is one of the health department’s busiest clinics, and availability and target groups will change daily based on the current overall supply.
We will continue to provide you with updates as they become available. You may also check the health department Web sitewww.fairfaxcounty.gov/flu for the latest information about H1N1 vaccine availability through Fairfax County Health Department.
Last week at this time, our absentee rate was about 11 percent system-wide and dropped steadily throughout the week. Today, the student absentee rate was slightly less than 8 percent. Some of the absences reported were for reasons other than illness.
Please help us prevent the spread of illness by keeping sick children home until they are fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medications. Also please reinforce our prevention messages at home by reminding your children to practice good health hygiene, such as frequent hand washing, coughing or sneezing into their sleeve or a tissue and not sharing personal items with other students, such as drinks or eating utensils.
Source: http://www.fccps.org
