Cobb and Douglas Public Health 'pausing' COVID-19 vaccines

Cobb health director COVID vaccines — *Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark.*

Due to a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine supplies, Cobb and Douglas Public Health said Friday it is temporarily “pausing” appointments for the public.

Since early January, the health agency had been releasing appointment slots each Friday for the following week, prioritizing health care workers, first responders and people ages 65 and older.

But the latest update, which didn’t specify when vaccinations might resume, indicated that current supplies may not increase until March or April.

In a message on its website, Cobb and Douglas Public Health also said that those who have a previously scheduled appointment for a first or second dose “will not be affected by this change unless you have been contacted.”

The agency said that when more appointments become available, they will be posted on its website and social media accounts.

In its status update on Friday—you can read through it by clicking here—Cobb and Douglas Public Health said it has administered 14,000 doses of the COVID vaccines since early January, including 11,896 at Jim Miller Park in Marietta.

But only 410 doses were given at Jim Miller on Friday, down from nearly 700 that had been distributed on Monday. That figure was provided in a briefing Tuesday to Cobb commissioners by Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark.

In her remarks, Memark said the agency was “prioritizing second doses” and that “if we have some extra we’ll schedule a first dose.”

But as the week continued the available vaccine doses began running out.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are being given by Cobb and Douglas Public Health, which is hopeful that it soon will get supplies of the Astra Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. The latter is a single-dose vaccine.

As of Saturday there have been 50,173 confirmed COVID cases in Cobb County from PCR tests and 11,923 more from antigen tests since last March.

A total of 693 have died in Cobb since that time, and 38 have been reported since Monday. Those include 13 deaths reported on Wednesday and 12 on Thursday.

The case rate is starting to drop slightly in Cobb, as are the community spread figures. As of Saturday, the 14-day average of cases per 100,000 people in the county is 661, after surpassing 1,000 earlier this month.

Earlier this week Cobb and metro-Atlanta school board members and superintendents sent letters to Gov. Brian Kemp asking for school staff to be prioritized for vaccines, but on Tuesday his spokesman said that Kemp “has repeatedly stated—as recently as today—that as soon as Georgia begins to receive increased vaccine supply, teachers and school staff will absolutely be included in any expanded criteria.”