“People should begin thinking about getting a seasonal flu shot and looking for a source right now,” said Chattooga County Health Department Nurse Manager Mitzi Smith.   “Everyone should get a seasonal flu shot, especially elderly people, health care workers and pregnant women.” According to Smith, the Chattooga County Health Department will give seasonal flu shots to the public on a walk-in basis at a special flu-shot clinic Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16 only, from 8 AM to 11:30 AM and from 1 PM to 4 PM at the health department.   Medicare and Medicaid will be accepted, and clients are asked to bring their cards.  

 Smith stressed that a limited quantity of doses of the influenza vaccine will be available on these two days due to “distribution channel problems and delays in getting the vaccine from the manufacturer.”  Smith said the health department has historically given “six to seven hundred doses a day on the first couple of days of our flu-shot clinics; however, we will not have that many doses initially, so we may run out.”  Smith said that after September 15^th and 16^th, “we will give flu shots on a walk-in basis as more doses become available.”    She added that there may be wait times after the 15^th and 16^th because health department staff will have resumed their regular duties by then and no longer just giving flu shots.