Health Department Schedules Flu Vaccine Clinic

Pomona, NY – The Rockland County Department of Health announces that its first flu vaccine clinic will be held on Friday, September 27 from 1 – 4 p.m. in the Robert L. Yeager Health Center, Building A Exhibition Hall, located at 50 Sanatorium Road in Pomona.

The vaccine is free of charge to adults 60 years and older (please bring identification with proof of age). No appointments are needed. Patients with Medicare and Medicaid must bring their cards. Those nine through 59 years of age can receive the vaccine, but will be charged a $30 fee. Each patient must bring proof of Rockland County residency such as a driver’s license or utility bill.

“Getting the flu vaccine is the main way to prevent the flu and its complications,” said Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, Rockland County Commissioner of Health.

Everyone six months of age and older should get the flu vaccine as soon as it becomes available each year. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against the flu virus. In the meantime, you are still at risk for getting the flu. That’s why it’s better to get vaccinated early in the fall, before the flu season really gets under way. The protection you get from the flu vaccine will last throughout the flu season.

This year the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of quadrivalent (four-virus) flu vaccines, which offer protection against the four different influenza (flu) viruses that research shows will be most common during the season: two influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses.

The Health Department will be giving the quadrivalent flu vaccine. In the past, the standard flu vaccine has been trivalent (three-virus), which means the vaccine protects against three different influenza viruses: two A viruses and one B virus. The quadrivalent vaccine may provide people with a broader protection against the influenza B viruses.

As the Health Department receives more shipments of the vaccine, additional flu vaccine clinics will be scheduled. For more information about the flu and the flu vaccine clinics visit https://rocklandgov.com/departments/health/programs-and-services/flu/ or call 845-364 –2520.

  flu shots, flu vaccines, rockland flu, The Rockland County Department of Health