Cheyenne Mountain High School hosts first mobile vaccination clinic to help curb COVID-19 school outbreaks

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Cheyenne Mountain High School hosted its first mobile vaccination clinic on Wednesday, in a multi-agency partnership aimed at reducing COVID-19 case outbreaks affecting El Paso County schools.

The clinic, coordinated in part by Nomi Health, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and El Paso County Public Health, vaccinated at least 300 students, parents and staff.

"The difficulty for our young people is they're still being exposed," District 12 spokesperson, Susan Payne said, "and while we're seeing our older populations have been vaccinated, they have to make the decision because the quarantines are very hard, especially if they've got extracurricular activities or academics or state testing."

With 147 confirmed student cases to date, Payne said challenges with quarantine in the last year have been a big motivator for students coming forward to get vaccinated.

"That's really where I think we're seeing a lot of young people come forward and say, you know for me I want to have a vaccine and my parents believe that's the best thing for me."

Across El Paso County, at least 24 of the 79 active outbreaks reported by the county health department are at K-12 schools.

"We in El Paso County are seeing rates starting to go up again and we are mirroring El Paso County in District 11. We're starting to see more cases in District 11," spokesperson Devra Ashby said.

  At least four D-11 schools are currently on remote learning. Despite plans to return in-person before the end of the year, Ashby said there's no denying how much it's affecting school activities.

"A lot of these students, especially in our high schools, are missing out some of the opportunities that we were excited to see for them, such as prom and senior awards. Those types of things, and our seniors are once again being impacted."