City Council To Discuss Funding For Swine Flu Nurses

The City of El Paso will soon be offering free swine flu vaccinations but it may need to hire more staff to do it.

City Council will consider authorizing a $500,000 contract with a company that provides extra nursing and clerical staff.

The money will be used to hire about 25 people to administer the vaccine at its clinics and open more clinics if needed.

The plan calls for an additional $250,000 to be made available if the extra staff is needed longer than eight weeks.

The money for the contracts would come from a federal grant.

The city says it's ordered 14,000 doses of the vaccine. 240 medical providers around the county have ordered a total of about 600,000 doses.

So far this year, seven people have died from the Swine Flu in El Paso County out of about 430 confirmed cases.

Stay tuned to NewsChannel Nine for further updates to this story.