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Officials set up a mobile center at a Missouri fair to boost vaccinations. No one showed up.

The disappointing turnout comes amid a rise in Covid-19 cases driven by the delta variant, local health officials said.
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Officials at the St. Charles County Health Department in Missouri said they were disappointed after no one showed up to a mobile Covid-19 vaccination center offering vaccines to those attending a local annual fair this week.

The St. Charles County Fair kicked off Tuesday at the Rotary Park in Wentzville, a St. Louis suburb. Attendees had the chance to get the Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Tuesday and Friday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to county health officials.

After spending two days at the fair, workers at the mobile vaccination site did not vaccinate a single person.

"It's disappointing," Nick Kohlberg of the St. Charles County Health Department told NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis.

Kohlberg and other local health officials hoped the annual fair would help boost vaccinations amid an increase in Covid-19 cases, driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

A total of 569,796 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Missouri as of Saturday. At least 13,193 of the positive cases were reported in the last 7 days. Only 41 percent of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Officials have said the delta variant is believed to be responsible for much of the spread in the state, particularly in the southwestern and northern regions as well as in rural areas.

Less than a quarter of the population in several rural counties in Missouri are fully vaccinated, according to the state's health department. With 45 percent of the population fully vaccinated, St. Charles County, where the fair was hosted, is the county with the largest percentage of residents who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

However, the St. Charles County Health Department said 823 confirmed Covid-19 cases have been reported over the past two weeks, which is more than double the number of cases previously reported.

"Every single vaccination counts at this time," Sara Evers, the acting director of the St. Charles County Health Department, told KSDK.

Kohlberg said the department will continue to "do our best to reach as many people as we can."

They have another one scheduled for Friday.