CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) — As students at Charlotte-Mecklenburg School return to class on Monday, public health officials and the school district are reminding parents to get their children vaccinated.
Students are required to receive the usual vaccines, but the CMS does not include a COVID-19 or Monkeypox vaccine requirement.
You can find national vaccine requirements here, and you can find CMS-specific vaccination guidelines here.
At a Friday press conference, CMS said it had a plan in place to prevent and respond to both COVID-19 and Monkeypox.
“We get our guidelines from the Mecklenburg County Public Health Office. We continue to monitor the disease and refine our action plan for Monkeypox prevention and response. Many features of our COVID response plans are applicable to monkeypox,” said Treva Johnson, School Health Specialist.
At a free vaccination event at the Mecklenburg County Health Department on Saturday, Dr. Raynard Washington said they were working closely with CMS to ensure safety.
“We are always concerned about schools as potential sources of transmission for any infectious disease, not just Monkeypox, not just COVID, not just influenza. Because we have a lot of people in a collective setting who have close contact,” he said.
Mecklenburg County reports there are 282 cases of Monkeypox in the state. 126 are in Mecklenburg County, plus one case involving a child.
However, experts point out that the general risk of this virus is low and that it is only spread through close skin-to-skin contact.
Mecklenburg County notes that they only have Monkeypox vaccines for adults. Leaders say to consider getting one only if you are high-risk and sexually active, or have been exposed to Monkeypox.
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