JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — A vacant grocery store building in Festus will get a new purpose as a vaccination clinic.
The Jefferson County Health Department Board of Trustees voted Monday to lease the old Shop n’ Save building located at 1275 N. Truman for six months. The board also approved a measure to staff the clinic.
At 60,000 square feet, the building gives the county the room and flexibility to administer up to 1,000 doses of vaccine per day.
The cost of renting the former grocery store is $4,000 per month and will be paid for using federal CARES Act funding. The building is currently for sale and if an offer is received, the lease can be terminated with a 30-day notice.
About 60 people will be needed to work the clinic: 20 medical and 40 non-medical staff. It will cost the county about $70,000-$85,000 per month, which will be reimbursed through federal FEMA grants.
On March 15, Missouri opened up the next tier of eligibility to include about 550,000 more people statewide. Phase 1 B Tier 3 includes those who work in education, child care, communication, energy, food/agriculture, government, information technology and other "critical infrastructure" as outlined by the state.
However, the Jefferson County Health Department announced last week that it is not yet ready to vaccinate those in 1B Tier 3. Instead, it will continue to focus on people who fall within the previous two tiers.
Those who are interested in receiving the vaccine should register through the department's website. Anyone without internet access can call the county's COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Line at 636-789-8941.