County announces seven clinics for free swine-flu shots

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• Hit with their best (flu) shot

  Hit with their best (flu) shot

  The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department aimed to inoculate 2,500 people during a mass-vaccination drill at fire departments in Grover Beach, Morro Bay, Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo on Tuesday.

  During the exercise, flu shots were given to county employees, emergency first-responders, city employees at the host locations and their families.

  The drill, conducted during a 2½-hour morning and a three-hour afternoon session, was aimed at improving the county’s response to pandemics or instances in which the public might have to be inoculated quickly during a health emergency, according to a news release.

• San Luis Coastal students can get whooping cough booster shots at clinic

  San Luis Coastal students can get whooping cough booster shots at clinic

  A free clinic will be held Monday for students in seventh through 12th grades at San Luis Coastal Unified School District who still need to receive the booster shot protecting them against whooping cough.

  The clinic, put on by the San Luis Obispo County Health Department, will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the library at San Luis Obispo High School.

  A state law requires that all students in seventh through 12th grades get a whooping cough booster shot or a signed exemption within 30 days of the first day of school. Students who have not yet received the booster in the school district will not be allowed to return to classes starting Monday until they get it.

• Capps to host Skype discussion with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services at Alan Hancock College

  Capps to host Skype discussion with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services at Alan Hancock College

  U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will participate by Skype in a roundtable discussion Monday at Allan Hancock College about job opportunities for health care workers.

  Projections show health care jobs will grow by 3.2 million between 2008 and 2018, more than any other industry, according to Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who will host the forum. The industry has accounted for one-third of private sector job growth in the past three months, Capps wrote in a news release.

  Speakers will highlight job opportunities for those attending community colleges, such as Hancock and Cuesta College.

• SLO County's first free medical clinic to open next week

  SLO County's first free medical clinic to open next week

  An enthusiastic San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors has granted $75,000 to help get the county’s first free clinic off the ground.

  Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously endorsed the effort by the SLO Noor Foundation, which next week will open the Noor Free Clinic, the first in the county designed to provide medical care to the 30 percent of county residents who do not have health coverage.

  Dr. Ahmad Nooristani — the Afghan born physician at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo behind the free clinic — intends to use the grant money primarily to buy laboratory equipment and supplies. That will allow the clinic to produce lab results quickly and efficiently.

• No whooping cough booster? No class, school officials say

  No whooping cough booster? No class, school officials say

  Twenty students in the Lucia Mar Unified School District still need to receive a booster shot protecting against whooping cough or they won’t be able to attend school Monday, the South County district’s nurse said.

  A state law requires all students in seventh through 12th grades to get a whooping cough booster shot or a signed exemption within 30 days of the first day of school.

  Students in the Lucia Mar district were the first in the county to head back to school, but the 30-day deadline is looming for students in the county’s other nine school districts. The law also applies to students in private schools.