Officials announced late Monday that seniors at either of the district’s three high schools — Stamford High School, Westhill High School, and the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering — will be able to get the Pfizer vaccine on April 17 or 18 at the site at the former Lord + Taylor store.
Amy Taylor, vice president of the western region for Community Health Center, which runs the mass vaccination site at Lord + Taylor, said the center wanted to save spots for teenagers to get the vaccine.
“When we became aware that the state was going to open up the vaccines to people 16 and up, we knew that we wanted to reserve some of those appointments for some really important people in our community, which are our high school students,” she said, during a webinar on Monday about re-opening high schools.
She said students will also be able to get the second dose of the vaccine three weeks later at the same location.
Taylor said seniors are the focus of this campaign because they are nearing the end of their public school experience.
“All of these rites of passage and special celebrations that the seniors get to participate in, we wanted to try to help make that possible for them, and at the same time make it a safer environment for all students and teachers to return back to school,” she said.
She said students should receive an email with instruction on how to register for the vaccine. Seniors who are 18 years of age or older can fill out the forms themselves, but younger students will need parental consent. Regardless of age, only seniors will be allowed to get the vaccine through the effort.
“Then we will be looking at, ‘How do we vaccinate everybody who is 16 and above regardless of what grade they are in?’” Taylor said.
ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com
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