LAURINBURG —The Scotland County Health Department said it will begin offering influenza shots in the latter part of September.
No date has been set for flu shots for the public, but the vaccinations will be offered until the end of the year, according to county Health Director Bengie Hair. There is a $40 charge.
The department will flu shots to all county employees on Sept. 14 and Sept. 16.
Hair said about 200 died of the flu in North Carolina last year.
“As a result of that people will probably have greater awareness of the need to have a flu shot this year than in the past,” he said. “One of the significant issues is the number of people who died last year who did not have a flu shot.”
Hair added that flu shots at the Health Department are done in a private setting.
“There’s a number of questions that people will often have about flu shots, so we want to afford people the privacy for that,” he said. “It’s not like being out in the open and having a drape pulled around you.”
The department has offered flu shots every year, even after pharmacies began offering them, but Hair said that it is important that the public to know the shot are available.
“It’s a service to the community on the behalf of the Health Department,” he said.