Beginning Wednesday, Sedgwick County residents with weakened immune systems will be able to get a free COVID-19 booster shot.
The county health department will offer a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to anyone who “self-attests” to having a certain medical condition that compromises their immune system.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday recommended a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for people who need the extra protection.
“When people don’t have the healthiest immune system, the vaccine may not be as effective, strong,” county health director Adrienne Byrne said last week following the CDC's guidance. “I would imagine that we’re going to have a number of people that are very anxious to have that additional protection.”
Eligible conditions are:
- Active treatment for solid tumor or hematologic malignancies
- Receipt of solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy
- Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)
- Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (e.g., DiGeorge, Wiskott-Aldrich syndromes)
- Advanced or untreated HIV infection
- Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (i.e., > 20mg prednisone or equivalent per day), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, TNF blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory
No documentation is required to prove eligibility. However, anyone who wants a booster shots needs to show proof they received a second dose of either the Pfizer vaccine. A third dose can be administered 28 days after the second.
The county recommends those who received two doses of the Moderna vaccine get their booster shot from the same provider.
Byrne says the county has enough vaccine for anyone that wants it.
“It's important when we have this third dose, this booster, that it really is able to go to those people that we know need it because of their systems not responding as well to the doses that they've gotten,” she said.
The county’s vaccine clinic is at 223 S. Main in the former central library. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. No appointments are necessary.
