By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A special COVID-19 vaccination clinic was held Saturday in Howell, exclusively targeting school personnel.

600 doses of the vaccine were set aside by the Livingston County Health Department for the clinic, which was held at Howell High School and coordinated through the Livingston Educational Service Agency. LESA Superintendent Mike Hubert tells WHMI that the “collaborative effort” involved leaders of the county’s traditional public schools, public school academies and private schools.

Hubert says that, “Because of the leadership provided by the Livingston County Health Department we were extended the opportunity to help coordinate the sign up of school personnel from across the county. It was not limited to just teachers it was all school personnel, so teacher assistants, food service, transportation, and every other classification of employees working day in and day out to ensure Livingston County can offer in person learning opportunities for students.”

School personnel who took part on Saturday said the clinic itself worked very well, although there had been irregularities in how each district was allowed to sign up for the limited spots, with some registration links being released by individual districts earlier than had been agreed.

However, Hubert said that the clinic was “only a start” and they look forward to follow-up opportunities to get all education-related employees vaccinated. Members of the Howell High School JROTC and Health Occupations courses also helped to run the clinic.

Meanwhile, the Livingston County Health Department reports that the overall COVID-19 vaccine supply "is extremely limited at the local level." Local health officials expect vaccine administration to roll out over a series of months and "strongly encourages residents of Livingston County to check the LCHD website regularly for updates. Even with the vaccine in play, slowing the transmission of COVID-19 in Livingston County will still require community teamwork." In the meantime, they remind residents to continue to practice hand hygiene, mask wearing, and social distancing. "This teamwork is especially important as we see a downtrend in number of cases, as well as percent positivity rate. Livingston County residents must not lose their vigilance to continue this downward trend to keep our most vulnerable populations safe from COVID-19."

The most recent COVID-19 report indicates that the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations is down over the past two weeks, while the current test positivity rate in Livingston County is 8.2%, "which has substantially decreased since the previous two-week period (11.9%)." However, they note that the local rate in Livingston County is higher than the State of Michigan (6.6%). The report is attached below.