LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) held a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots on Tuesday for its staff. The district is also continuing its COVID-19 drive-thru testing clinics for staff, students and their families.
On Monday, 3,600 people took advantage of the drive thru testing clinic.
Robert Gregory is retired from everything except fishing in the summer and caring for his 2-year-old grandson, Zander.
“I want to make sure he he was protected too and now the whole family,” says Gregory.
Gregory is married to a JCPS teacher's aide and was able to get his booster shot at Seneca High School.
“We knew about how hard it was maybe to get it and how busy they were, and then we come down here and signed up, come right in and got it. It was it was real quick. I was surprised,” says Gregory.
Eva Stone, JCPS’s manager of district health says providing vaccines is an effort to keep students in school and COVID out.
“Vaccination is the life-saving measure, so if you're a parent and your child is five and above and they've not been vaccinated yet, I urge you to consider that because again, that is one of the things that we know it can be life saving for people and their family members,” says Stone.
About 300 people registered to get vaccinated on Tuesday across JCPS high schools.
The district's is also experiencing an uptick in people taking advantage of drive-thru COVID-19 testing.
“People have COVID, they don't know they have COVID. They're either not symptomatic yet or have very mild symptoms that's when it starts to spread and so it's important to to know your status to know if you're positive,” says Stone.
The district has administered about 8,600 tests since last week, but the amount of people getting tested and vaccinated aren’t the only numbers going up.
“We know this week we've had a lot of positive cases and so we're definitely seeing the impact of increased covid in the area,” says Stone. “We know this new variant has been detected in Louisville and it's more contagious than even delta was.”
That concern is why Erin Hickerson, her husband and two children who are JCPS students, got tested.
“My son was exposed the last week of school and so we've all kind of been feeling a little under the weather and just want to make sure we were okay,” says Hickerson.
Hickerson and Gregory are grateful for the services provided by JCPS.
“I was able to sign the whole family up. We're out here and we'll get the results today. It's wonderful,” says Hickerson.
“Maybe we'll nip this stuff in the bud. I hope anyway, that's the only way we're going to do is get your shots,” says Gregory.
Winter break testing will continue at all JCPS high schools through December 30.
On January 8, JCPS will hold a vaccination clinic at Newcomer Academy.
The clinic will be aimed at English as a second language students and families who received their first dose of the vaccine on December 18.