Health Department Now Offering COVID19 Pfizer Booster Doses

The Missoula City County Health Department announced on Monday that booster doses of the Pfizer COVID 19 vaccine are now available at the department’s vaccination site at Southgate Mall.

COVID-19 Incident Commander Cindy Farr provides details.

“Last week, the CDC and the APIC (Association for Professionals in Infection Control) said that people who got their doses of Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago that there is now a recommendation that they should get a booster,” said Farr. “The people that are recommended to get a booster are people who are 65 and older and residents who live in long term care settings; people aged 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions that can put them at higher risk with COVID and also people 18 to 49 who work in an occupation where they are higher likelihood of being exposed to the virus.”

Farr said Saturday was another day with a high number of COVID cases.

“I believe that it was over 100 cases that came in on Saturday,” she said. “So we're definitely seeing continued community spread and we do want to just remind people that the same things that we’ve been saying for a year and a half, all of those things are still recommended. Social distancing, hand washing staying home if you're sick, getting tested right away, keeping your social circles small, those are all still effective measures at preventing the transmission of COVID.”

Farr detailed the number of COVID patients currently being treated in Missoula area hospitals.

“So we've currently got 39 Missoula county residents hospitalized and 13 out-of-county residents hospitalized in Missoula County right now,” she said. “We are continuing to see really high rates of hospitalization. We've had multiple deaths in the last week or so we are now up to 125 deaths reported in Missoula County due to COVID. We've really seen an uptick in the number of people who are passing away from COVID within about the last week, so I'm getting notifications almost every day. It's a mix of ages.”

Farr then provided information on how to receive the Pfizer COVID booster vaccination.

“You can go on our website and be able to book that appointment, or you can come in as a walk-in at our old Lucky's market Southgate Mall clinic. You can come in as a walk-in and you just want to make sure that you bring your vaccine card so that they can double check with you and make sure that it's been six months since your last dose.”

Appointments are available by calling 258-INFO (256-4636).