Monroe County plans to hire 30 registered nurses on a temporary basis to aid in COVID-19 vaccination efforts, officials announced Monday.
The positions pay between $44,661 and $58,929 annually, and the nurses will administer vaccines in the county’s immunization clinic as well as outreach clinics. Minimum qualifications include graduation from a regionally accredited or New York-registered school of nursing. The county will consider retired nurses who are willing to renew their registrations.
“There’s an incredible sense of urgency to ramp up the vaccination effort to protect people and finally get through this pandemic, but that can only happen if we have properly trained professionals to inject the vaccine and enough vaccine to move through each phase and sector of the public,” County Executive Adam Bello said in a statement. “This is an opportunity to make a real difference in our fight against COVID-19 and to help put an end to this pandemic.”
The county is also hiring clerical support workers to record data at vaccination clinic sites. The positions pay $15 to $20 an hour and require a high school or high school equivalency diploma and two years of office clerical or secretarial experience.
The clerical and nursing positions are listed at www.monroecounty.gov.
Also Monday, county officials announced that the Monroe County and the Finger Lakes COVID-19 Vaccine Hub has begun preparing for the next phase of vaccinations, as have the other regions in the state.
But the county won’t begin “Phase 1B” of vaccinations until it completes “Phase 1A,” a task that will require additional vaccine supplies from the state, officials said in a news release.
Front-line health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, EMS personnel, funeral home employees and licensed mental health providers are among those eligible to receive the vaccine during Phase 1A. In Phase 1B, teachers and education workers, first responders, public safety workers, public transit workers and anyone age 75 and older would be eligible.
The county estimates that 100,000 residents would be eligible for vaccination during Phase 1B. Information on vaccine eligibility is available at monroecounty.gov/health-covid19-vaccine.
“In our region, we still have many 1A health care workers and long term care residents to vaccinate. We will move into 1B when vaccine supplies permit,” Dr. Nancy Bennett, head of Monroe County’s vaccine task force, said in a news release.
Jeremy Moule is CITY’s news editor. He can be reached at jmoule@rochester-citynews.com.