Concerns by the director of the Health Department about patient health and compliance with provisions associated with federal funding spurred the Phelps County Commission to take action Thursday.
The Commission approved banning smoking within 25 feet of any public entrance at the courthouse.
Jodi Waltman, director of the Phelps/Maries County Health Department, told commissioners the smokers who congregate near the lower-level entrance to the department posed a health risk to pregnant women and children who enter the building.
Moreover, the Health Department must remain compliant with the facility provisions — particularly disability-accessibility requirements — required by the Department of Agriculture, which funds the Women, Infants and Childrens (WIC) supplemental food program, the largest federally funded program the department administers, Waltman said.
After a brief discussion, the Commission approved banning smoking near all the public entrances at the courthouse, not just the lower-level entrance near the Health Department.
Waltman also apprised county officials attending the monthly Officials’ Meeting that the Health Department completed H1N1 flu clinics at Rolla elementary and Middle schools this week. Flu clinics are planned for Rolla Junior High and High schools on Monday and St. James schools on Tuesday. Newburg and Edgar Springs schools also had flu clinics sponsored by the Health Department.
The first public H1N1 flu clinic scheduled for high-risk groups will commence Dec. 2, Waltman said, providing vaccine supplies are available.
High-risk groups include pregnant women, children from 6 months of age up to 24-year-old individuals, health-care workers, parents and caregivers of infants less than 6 months of age and people from 25 to 64 years of age with chronic conditions.
Vaccine shipments from the state are slow in arriving, and no shipments are expected next week, Waltman said. Moreover, the state is predicting it will not have enough vaccine to protect seniors, 65 and older, through the end of the year. However, only 9 percent of seniors treated at emergency rooms required hospitalizations for flu-related illnesses.
“The children need the vaccine first,” Waltman said.
