COVID-19 vaccines available to all Mississippians 16 and older

Today is the first day that COVID vaccines are available to all adults in Mississippi.  At the Jackson County Fairgrounds, there were 1,200 vaccination appointments scheduled today.

COVID-19 vaccines are now available to anyone over 16-years-old in the state of Mississippi. Director of Primary Care at Singing River Jason Ely said, “The phone lines started blowing up and people were saying ‘I can get it now. I can get it now.’”

Singing River Health System set up a COVID vaccine drive thru at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Pascagoula. 1,200 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine appointments were scheduled. They were prepared to give a total of 2,000 to anyone who drove up. Hurley resident Kandy Howard said, “Hoping to get a leftover vaccine, this is when I think you had to be 50 and over, but before I got a call back from the clinic, I got online and saw that they had opened it up.”

Howard drove from Hurley with her son to share the experience with him. She used her vaccine appointment as a teaching lesson to her eight-year-old son. She pulled him out of school so he could witness the historic moment.

Howard remembers her mother sharing her childhood vaccination stories with her. “This is a once in a lifetime thing. My mom still talks about when she was a child going to get a Polio vaccination and they had to wait in this line. I just went and checked him out of school and brought him.”

Now that vaccinations are open to the public in Mississippi, Howard is waiting for vaccines to be approved for kids. “I think he saw that it was pretty easy. Hopefully they’re going to open this up for kids before school starts. We’ll be the first in line, if we can, to get that for him.”

Singing River Gulfport will host COVID vaccinations this Friday. Check the Singing River Health System Facebook page for appointment updates and to schedule times.