The school district is the first in the region to offer on-site clinics, a move meant to make it easier for students to get the vaccine. Norfolk Public Schools is working with city, state health officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to offer the shots.
The clinics, which run May 10-11 and May 13-14, will offer the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to students who have a signed permission slip from parents. The Pfizer vaccine is only authorized for adolescents who are at least 16 years old, but approval for children as young as 12 is expected to come shortly — potentially as early as Friday.
Each of the city’s five high schools and the Norfolk Technical Center will host clinics.
Eligible students can also continue to receive the vaccine at the FEMA-supported clinic at Military Circle Mall. A parent or guardian must be present at that location.
The FEMA clinic has been operating in Norfolk since the end of March. White House officials said Norfolk was chosen as the site of one of three federal vaccine clinics because of the city’s poverty rate and its demographics — about half the population is non-white. Vaccination rates among lower-income and non-white communities have lagged in Virginia and elsewhere.
Gov. Ralph Northam said Thursday that approximately 63,000 16- and 17-year-olds across the state have received at least the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
“We’re going to continue to just encourage everybody and really do everything we can to take our vaccines to the people,” Northam said.
No other Hampton Roads school district has announced plans to host clinics on-site.
Sara Gregory, 757-469-7484, sara.gregory@pilotonline.com
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