The city’s health department is launching a free childhood vaccine clinic on the second Thursday of the month over the summer. The first clinic is scheduled for Thursday, July 13 from noon to 4 p.m. by appointment only. The clinics are for children ages 5 to 18, regardless of immigration status, and all vaccines needed for school enrollment will be available. The clinics will be held at the Chelsea Public Health Department in room 100 of City Hall at 500 Broadway. To make an appointment, call (617) 947-6481 or email [email protected]. The childhood vaccine clinic aims to address the falling rates of childhood immunization since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in a convenient location. “The idea came up through essentially hearing from providers that there were delays in getting children fully immunized,” said Flor Amaya, the city’s public health director. Public Health Nurse Paula McHatton said there are two groups the city is looking to serve through the vaccine clinic. There is the adolescent and pediatric population that has been in the country for a long time, and fell behind on the vaccination schedule because of the pandemic. There are also families who are newly arrived in the country who find it difficult to establish a medical home, and in order to begin school, they need at least one series of their vaccinations. “In recognizing that one, Covid put a barrier in accessing timely appointments, and also created a shortage of staff impacting the access of newly arrived families to appointments, we thought it was necessary to create a system where at least we could help and support our medical providers,” said Amaya. With the recent influx of Haitian migrants to the city, Amaya said the city is holding a separate immunization clinic to address the needs of those children next week. “The intention is to do (the immunization clinic) one time a month, but we are flexible and open to reassessing frequency based on need,” said Amaya.