About 165 students at River Forest School District 90 have received the first dose of the two-shot Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, according to Dawne Simmons, district communications and community outreach coordinator. In partnership with a local Jewel-Osco, District 90 held a vaccine clinic at Roosevelt Middle School Nov. 19, just over a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized the Covid vaccine for children 5 to 11.
Throughout the pandemic, District 90 has teamed up with Jewel-Osco in River Forest, 7525 Lake St., to encourage eligible faculty, staff and students to get vaccinated. Since the spring, the two entities have hosted a handful of vaccine clinics at Roosevelt, and the Nov. 19 clinic was just another part of the effort, Simmons said.
Simmons said the district did not expect all families with 5- to 11-year-olds to sign up but wanted to offer them the opportunity to get the vaccine right at their local school, on familiar grounds. Simmons said that there were some families who initially scheduled a vaccine appointment at the Nov. 19 clinic but chose to cancel and went to their pediatricians or local pharmacies ahead of the clinic’s date.
Either way, Simmons said the district remained firm in its messaging, pushing families who are able to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We have a 98% vaccination rate among our staff,” Simmons said, adding the district wants families to be able to also reach that benchmark. “This is not only good for the District 90 community but for the greater River Forest community. It has to be a community effort, and we consider ourselves to be an important part of the community, and that’s why we’re doing this.”
For more information on COVID-19 vaccines for children, visit www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/.
