Hawaii, Schools Honored For Flu Shot Program
WAIPAHU, Hawaii — Hawaii students, teachers and school administrators were honored on Wednesday for the recent statewide flu shot program.
More than 60,000 participated in the first statewide flu vaccination program.
The Department of Health project earned Hawaii a national award for being the first state in the nation to offer flu immunization to all students.
“We always talk about how isolated we are. In the same vein that’s the reason we’re the ideal state, we get all our care here. They don’t go across state borders to go somewhere else. So, we can actually vaccinate our kids and then see what the outcome is in our community,” DOH Disease Outbreak Control’s Dr. Sarah Park said.
Waipahu Elementary School enlisted the most students of any school at 620.
“Any opportunity when we had a large group of our families together we wanted to get the message out. We wanted to provide the opportunity for them,” Waipahu Elementary School Principal Paul Taga said.
Sacred Hearts Academy had the highest-level participation at 80 percent.
DOH officials also recognized Ka Ana La’ahana Charter School on the Big Island and Kualapuu and Manunaloa elementary schools on Moloka`i.
The program cost more than $2 million, most of it will come from state, federal and corporate funds.