Franklin County’s public health nurses are encouraging residents to sign up early for the COVID-19 and flu clinics being held in schools, senior centers and town halls throughout October and November.

“Sign up right away,” said Megan Tudryn, public health nurse with the Greenfield Health Department. “They are filling up fast.”

In a change from last year, when people could walk into vaccine clinics without registering ahead of time, this year’s participants need to sign up in advance. The reason for this, according to Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) Director of Community Health Phoebe Walker, is the cost.

“The big change this year is now COVID vaccines are not free,” Walker said.

Each COVID-19 vaccine costs about $150 per dose, so there is less “wiggle room” for the health departments to have extras when the clinics are over. However, insurance companies are required to cover this cost, so there will be no charge for those getting vaccinated. According to Walker, any uninsured adult will have the cost of the vaccine covered by the state.

Insurance also covers the cost of a flu vaccine, with those who don’t have insurance needing to pay a fee. Walker said all minors are covered for all vaccines in the state, both COVID-19 and flu.

The state’s plan to get people vaccinated this year has been to work with pharmacies, although officials have recognized that pharmacies are difficult to reach in the rural areas of Franklin County. To combat this, the state has sponsored mobile vendor clinics.

“The state recognizes communities don’t have access to pharmacies here,” Walker said.

Public health nurses are also doing home visits to administer flu vaccines to anyone who is homebound.

Maureen O’Reilly, health educator with FRCOG, said it is important to get vaccines on an individual level to reduce the risk of severe illness or death, and at a societal level to lower the overall rates of illness.

She also said that statistically, getting the COVID-19 vaccine has reduced the chance of people getting “long COVID,” the term for those who experience a wide range of symptoms that can last weeks, months or even years after infection. People can get both the COVID-19 and flu vaccines at the same time. O’Reilly said receiving both at once will still be effective and has been shown to not make patients any sicker than if only one shot was administered.

Given that respiratory illnesses change over time, O’Reilly said an updated COVID-19 vaccine was recently released to attempt to better match the strains and better protect people against severe illness.

Details about all the vaccine clinics can be found on FRCOG’s website at frcog.org/project/vaccine-information. Host locations for the clinics can help people sign up for appointments. More clinics may be organized throughout the month.

People can also get free COVID-19 tests through the government website, covid.gov/tests.

The following COVID-19 vaccination clinics still have appointments available in the coming weeks:

■Gill-Montague Senior Center — Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 3 to 6 p.m.

■Hawlemont Regional School — Wednesday, Oct. 18, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.

■Four Rivers Charter Public School — Thursday, Oct. 19, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.

■Pioneer Valley Regional School — Friday, Oct. 20, from 3 to 6 p.m.

■Greenfield Middle School — Friday, Oct. 20, from 4 to 7 p.m.

■Sheffield Elementary School — Monday, Oct. 23, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.

■Orange Senior Center (COVID-19 vaccines only) — Tuesday, Oct. 24, from 3 to 5 p.m.

■Mohawk Trail Regional School — Wednesday, Oct. 25, from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

■Erving Senior Center — Thursday, Oct. 26, from noon to 3 p.m.

■Deerfield Elementary School — Friday, Oct. 27, from 3 to 6 p.m.

■Greenfield High School — Friday, Nov. 3, from 4 to 7 p.m.

■Newton School (flu vaccines only) — Thursday, Nov. 9, from 4 to 7 p.m.

■Erving Public Library — Sunday, Nov. 12, from noon to 3 p.m.

■Turners Falls High School — Friday, Nov. 17, from 4 to 7 p.m.

Community health survey

Public health nurses are also encouraging Franklin County residents to fill out a statewide public health survey.

“It is open for the month of October,” said Walker. “It will be hugely helpful for people who do health work to have that data.”

Walker explained that the state rolled out its first public health survey during the COVID-19 lockdowns. For that survey, Franklin County represented 1,000 of the 12,000 responses received by the state. She explained the responses from the survey led the state to sponsor several programs, including the mobile vaccine clinics.

This year, Walker and her team hope to get a similar number of responses to inform the state about the rural area’s public health needs compared to those of more urban areas. Roughly 500 responses have been received so far.

The survey, which is offered in 11 languages, asks questions about the respondent’s life and what health resources they can access. Anyone 14 or older can participate and the survey is open until the end of the month. For more information, visit bit.ly/3Q7a2zx.

“Fifteen minutes of your time translates to literally thousands of dollars toward making our communities healthier, functional, better and easier to live in,” O’Reilly said.

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.