Audrain County and surrounding residents in Phase 1B – Tiers 1 and 2 (which encompasses those 65-plus years of age and adults with high-risk conditions) will have a chance this Friday to receive the COVID-19 vaccine free as the Missouri National Guard brings their vaccination clinic to the Mexico Memorial Airport-Hagan Brothers Field through a partnership with the Audrain County Health Department (ACHD), the County of Audrain and the City of Mexico.

Those in Phase 1B – Tiers 1 and 2 wishing to receive one of the 2,500 available vaccines the National Guard will have available need to plan to arrive at the Mexico Airport early and expect to wait their turn for an extended period of time. No pre-registration is required for the clinic.

“This is a chance for those in the Audrain County area to receive the vaccine when otherwise, they may not be able to due to the limited supply of the vaccine,” ACHD Administrator and CEO Craig Brace said. “Limited supply will mean some will have to be turned away. We apologize in advance for this and will continue to work on scheduling other mass vaccination clinics in the near future.”

Brace said the health department found out about Mexico being chosen as one of three mass vaccination sites in Region F of the State of Missouri this past Friday morning.

“It was not easy to find a site that could accommodate the parameters of what the National Guard says they need to run a clinic efficiently in such a short amount of time in Mexico,” he said. “Thanks to partnerships we already had in place with the City of Mexico and the County of Audrain, this process was made exponentially easier and, for that, we can only express our appreciation.”

The Missouri National Guard hopes to be able to vaccinate up to 2,500 residents during the operational period of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Friday, January 29. More information will be forthcoming from both the ACHD and the Missouri National Guard with further details on the clinic in the coming days.

Please know this mass vaccination clinic is only for individuals who are 65+ years old and high-risk adults who have the following health concerns: Cancer, Chronic Kidney Disease, COPD, Intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, Heart Conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies, Immunocompromised state from solid organ transplant, Severe Obesity (Body Mass Index greater than 40), Pregnancy, Sickle Cell Disease and Type 2 Diabetes.

Further instruction as to how the clinic will operate will be forthcoming as soon as possible. “As soon as we learn these details, we will post them on our web site (www.audraincountyhealth.org), to our Facebook page and release them to our local media,” Brace said.

This mass vaccination clinic is separate from the on-going efforts by the ACHD to vaccinate Phase 1A and Phase 1B, Tier 1 & 2 individuals. If contact information has already been submitted to the health department, that information will continue to be processed in the order it was received, however it will not prevent anyone from participating in the mass vaccination clinic on Friday, if they choose to do so.

The supply of Pfizer vaccine has no effect on the supply that ACHD receives as the mass vaccination clinic vaccine is being provided by the Missouri National Guard.