TORRINGTON – Last week, Goshen County Public Health held a walk-in flu and COVID-19 shot clinic at the Pony Express Room. The staff gave around 300 vaccinations. Kara Palfy, office manager, and Cindy Wright, registered nurse, spoke to the Telegram about the process of setting up this clinic. 

Wright has been doing the clinic for quite a few years. Each year, she bases the current clinic off of what has and hasn’t worked in previous years. She finds it easier to go out and do these clinics than to tend so many people in their office building. They are able to accommodate many more people as there is quite a large demand.

 They rely on volunteers to help run the clinic and they have helped for several years. Wright shared how the setup of this takes a lot of teamwork. Up at public health, they have “a wonderful team of nurses, volunteers and secretaries. They shut down the building for the day and everyone on their team goes to help with these clinics.” There is a lot of work put into the vaccination clinics. 

Palfy said Wright has to pre-order all of these vaccines. She has to calculate the amount they need before they actually use them. She does this using her experience from other years. This year, she knew to order more high-dose vaccines because they ran low last year. 

They typically see a lot of the older population as it is one of the more prominent populations of the town, but they also see some young people. They are happy to help anyone of any age. Public health is the only place in the area that has the COVID-19 shot. This year’s clinic was more successful than last year when it comes to people vaccinated. 

Their goal with these clinics is to make sure people are vaccinated. Palfy said vaccination and home health save lives. They want to have vaccines available for people who need them. 

Another thing the ladies from public health wanted to share was how they work really well with kids. They always have two nurses present during the vaccination to make sure everything is done properly. They only have registered nurses giving vaccines. They work well with all age groups. 

Public health is doing walk-in flu and COVID-19 clinics on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in their office. They have to make sure they have time to do things and maintain other programs other than vaccinations, so those are the only times they will accept walk-ins. Otherwise, vaccinations need to be scheduled.