The Kern County Public Health Services Department is opening a free walk-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Kern County Fairgrounds on October 12, 2021.
The vaccination clinic will take place inside the Harvest Hall building and will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; the Pfizer vaccine will be available for those 12 and up. Additionally, flu shots will be available for those interested in receiving it.
Kern County Public Health held a press conference at the Harvest Hall building where Brynn Carrigan, Public Health Director, and the vaccination team were on-site to provide a brief tour and answer questions.
“Vaccination is the safest, fastest, most effective way we can develop immunity against COVID-19,” Carrigan stated during the conference. “As we are starting to see a decline in our COVID-19 cases here in Kern County, we encourage our unvaccinated residents to get vaccinated to help us prevent a fourth surge.”
Since January 21, 97.59 percent of Kern County cases of COVID-19 are in those who are unvaccinated and 97.8 percent of hospitalizations are of those who are unvaccinated.
As of yesterday, 51.8 percent of Kern County’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Additionally, 61.1 percent of Kern’s eligible population is at least partially vaccinated.
“Ever since July 4 we’ve seen increases in our vaccination rates,” Carrigan stated when asked about vaccine interest from the public. “Those rates have remained relatively steady and at a higher level than what we were seeing pre-July 4. We are starting to see that demand ween slightly, but it is holding fairly strong; we are still seeing about 14,000 vaccinations happen per week.”
Kern County Public Health’s partnership with Fairgrounds has allowed them to host various COVID-19 vaccination clinics along with COVID-19 testing before the vaccine’s availability.
“We vaccinated over 100,000 people through the fairgrounds, which was phenomenal,” Carrigan announced. “Without the fairgrounds we wouldn’t have had the ability to vaccinate so many people in a small period of time.”
Walk-ins will be welcomed, but residents are encouraged to make an appointment at www.myturn.ca.gov. Additionally, an interactive map that includes vaccination locations throughout Kern County can be accessed through Kern County Public Health’s website
