COVINGTION, Louisiana – St. Tammany Health System has confirmed delivery of 1,000 doses of the newly approved, single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which will be distributed Thursday and Friday (March 4 and 5) to patients meeting state vaccine eligibility criteria at its St. Tammany Physicians Network clinics in Mandeville, Madisonville and Folsom.
Appointments are available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and should be made via the free MyChart app. Those experiencing difficulty with the app can make an appointment by calling (985)898-4001, which is answered 24/7, although anticipated heavy call volumes may result in a longer-than-usual wait during peak hours.
STHS also continues to offer COVID vaccinations daily at its Express Care clinic on Highway 21 in Covington.
The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, also known as the Janssen vaccine, was granted approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 27, making it the third vaccine available in the United States. In addition to being a one-dose vaccine, it is reported to be 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
In keeping with LDH eligibility guidelines, St. Tammany Health System is administering COVID-19 vaccines only to those patients in the following groups:
- Persons 65 and older.
- Dialysis providers and patients.
- Ambulatory and outpatient providers and staff, including:
- Behavioral health providers and staff.
- Urgent care clinic providers and staff.
- Community care providers and staff.
- Dental providers and staff.
- Non-emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) providers and staff.
- Professional home care providers (including hospice workers) and home care recipients (including older and younger people with disabilities over the age of 16 who receive community or home-based care, as well as clients of home health agencies).
- American Sign Language (ASL) and foreign language interpreters and Support Service Providers (SSPs) working in community and clinic-based settings, and clients who are both deaf and blind.
- Health-related support personnel (lab staff, mortuary staff who have contact with corpses, pharmacy staff).
- Schools of allied health students, residents and staff.
- Law enforcement and other first responders.
- Louisiana Unified Command Group.
- State and local essential COVID emergency response personnel.
- Some elections staff ahead of March and April elections.
- Teachers and any other support staff working on site in K-12 or daycare.
- Pregnant women.
- Individuals ages 55 to 64 with at least one of the conditions listed by the CDC as placing them at an “increased risk of severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19,” including:
- Cancer
- Chronic kidney disease
- COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
- Down syndrome
- Heart conditions including but not limited to heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
- Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant
- Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30kg/m2 or higher but less than 40kg/m2)
- Severe obesity (BMI greater than 40kg/m2)
- Sickle cell disease
- Smoking
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus