With school starting back up, San Francisco families on Saturday showed up at a health clinic in the city's Bayview neighborhood to get their children vaccinated or caught up on different vaccine requirements for school.
The vaccinations were issued at the new Southeast Health Center Clinic.
"I think it's really great that this is available for him particularly," parent Kate Groza said. "We just moved to San Francisco."
Groza said she and her family had been living in Romania. With school in mind, she said Saturday's event was ideal.
"Getting back into the system is actually a challenge," Groza said. "This is amazing that it's offered for him to get on track with his vaccinations and have the records that he needs to have a successful year at Lowell."
The San Francisco Department of Public Health is helping out with a series of back-to-school vaccination events for children in transitional kindergarten through high school.
"We know that it's been so hard for people because of pandemic and having to work or having to shelter in place," San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip said.
The health department wants to make the vaccinations accessible.
"When kids go into TK or kindergarten, they need to be up to date on their measles, mumps and rubella," Dr. Keith Seidel said. "They need to be up to date on polio vaccine."
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Philip said the state is not requiring COVID-19 vaccines for school, but she strongly encourages it.
"We know how incredibly important it is," she said. "We've seen this with COVID-19. We’re hearing now about polio being detected on the East Coast, so it is critically important that all of our kids are up to date on their vaccinations."
Philip said polio has not been detected in city wastewater.
