West Virginia college offers COVID-19 vaccines on first day of school

LOGAN COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — The first day of classes begins for more students in some parts of our region.  

One in Logan County, West Virginia is trying to get the school year off to a good and safe start.

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College (SWVCTC) is beginning the year by offering their students an accessible way to keep themselves safe—especially since the school is shifting gears this year.

“It’s totally different from last year. Last year we were totally completely online. There were no classes as far as in-person learning,” says Bill France, director of communications at SWVCTC.

The shift back to in-person learning is exciting. France says, “But we’re also mindful of the situation.”

The situation: Increasing rates of COVID-19 transmission. So, to try to help combat the issue head-on:

“We are doing a vaccination clinic for the first day of school at Southern West Virginia Community College. With school starting and the Delta variant becoming more prevalent, and we just need to get more people vaccinated, and this seemed like a good way to do that,” says Terri Doss, a pharmacist from Man Pharmacy helping to run the clinic.

Students seem to agree.

“The main reason I’m doing it is just to do it as a precautionary method to get out of the way while here. The convenience of it is very, very nice – I actually do applaud this establishment for upholding that and being able to perform that on a readily basis for its student body,” says Doran Vance, a student at SWVCTC.

The clinic is offering Pfizer, Moderna, and the Johnson and Johnson vaccines and is open to students, faculty, and staff at the college.

“We’re hoping as people come in for the first day of classes they think, ‘maybe I should get vaccinated and pop in here and get a shot – it’s not an age group that we see a lot of vaccinations in, so we really need to step up our game there,” Doss says.

Masks are currently optional at the school, but officials say the situation is fluid.

“We know it’s ever-changing, the landscape of this thing.  And we just want to make it available to our students, to our staff, everyone so that they have that option, an easy option, to come in and get vaccinated,” France says.

Officials say the clinic will be back on campus in around three weeks to get the students who got vaccinated at the first clinic their second doses.