LAUSD Opens Vaccine Clinics For Families At George Washington Prep, Abraham Lincoln High School
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — When Hector Morales got a call, asking him if he was interested in a COVID-19 vaccination, he couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Morales, the father of an LAUSD sophomore, was one of the first in line outside George Washington Prep in South LA Tuesday to receive a vaccination from one of the district's first vaccine clinics to open this week.
"This is important to me to protect others," he said. "We tried to do the appointment two weeks ago and it was not easy."
With the district poised to reopen campuses for in-person learning next week, officials are working to make reopening safer by launching vaccine clinics at more than two dozen schools in underserved areas.
A clinic at Abraham Lincoln High School in East Los Angeles also opened Tuesday, and a third will open on Friday at Henry T. Gage Middle School in the Huntington Park area.
Sergio Quintero was one of the first in line at the walk-up clinic at Lincoln High School Tuesday.
"It took longer to actually do the fill out all of the information but the whole process was no more than 10 minutes," Quintero said. "I feel good. I feel lucky to have gotten it, you know?"
The vaccinations are being administered by St. John's Well Child and Family Center, and district officials say they hope to provide 2,000 doses per week, per school.
While vaccinations have not yet been approved for children under the age of 16, vaccinating more parents in high-needs areas is one way of "expanding the safety net," Superintendent Austin Beutner said in a statement Monday.
The district says school-based vaccination efforts allow people to access the vaccine when they hit barriers like access to technology, lack of time, an inability to navigate the online vaccine lottery to get an appointment, or lack of transportation to a distant vaccination site.
To get a vaccine at an LAUSD vaccine clinic, call the Family Vaccination Hotline at (213) 328-3958.