Jim Miller Park COVID-19 vaccines cancelled due to shortages

Jim Miller Park COVID vaccine appointments

Cobb and Douglas Public Health on Friday cancelled all scheduled COVID-19 vaccine appointments at Jim Miller Park for Saturday and Monday because of more supply shortages.

Crippling winter weather elsewhere has interrupted the supply chain of vaccine shipments, according to the agency, which indicated it was already running out of vaccine doses on hand before the week was out.

“Please be assured that you will be first in line for vaccination appointments next week when we receive vaccine. We will communicate by email, text or phone to reschedule,” the Cobb and Douglas Public Health message states.

For the last three weeks Cobb and Douglas Public Health has not been accepting new appointments for its drive-up venues at Jim Miller Park and Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville.

In Cobb, only a few hundred vaccine doses were available to distribute per day.

Cobb and Douglas Public Health Director Dr. Janet Memark has said that sufficient vaccine supplies may not be available until March or April.

Until then, only people with previously booked appointments will be able to get vaccines.

She’s scheduled to brief the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night with more updated information.

Cobb and Douglas Public Health is resuming COVID-19 testing at Jim Miller Park starting Monday. You must pre-register online by clicking here. The test is free (your insurance will be billed), and once you sign up, you can come by at your convenience from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday.

If you don’t have access to a computer, smartphone, or internet, you can call 844-625-6522, then press 1 and ask for registration help.

Those individuals eligible in the A+1 category to receive vaccines have been struggling to find any place to book an appointment.

The state of Georgia gets close to 200,000 vaccine doses a week from the federal government, but it’s not coming close to filling the demand.

The Georgia Department of Public Health recently unveiled a new vaccine dashboard that shows that more than 1.6 million vaccines have been administered in the state. Of that total, 1.1 million are first doses.

In Cobb County, more than 110,00 vaccine doses have been administered, with 71,000 of those being first doses. An average of just under 15,000 vaccines a week have been given per 100,000 people in Cobb, according to the dashboard.

Those figures include vaccines provided by public health agencies as well as private providers, including physicians and at pharmacies.

Georgia DPH has created a vaccine locator service indicating where vaccine supplies are available.

However, many of those locations say they are out of vaccines, or all available appointments have been booked.

Like other states, Georgia is working to secure more supplies of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines that became available in January.

Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday that the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security agencies will open four mass COVID-19 vaccination sites in underserved areas of the state, starting on Monday.

They are near the Atlanta airport, as well as in Albany, Clarkesville and Macon, and will be offering drive-up vaccinations Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. They will be able to distribute more than 20,000 vaccines per day combined.

Appointments will be necessary and are available to people categorized as A+1 under the state’s tiered priority list. That includes seniors 65 and older and their caregivers, long-term care residents, health care workers and first responders.

The state has created a new website, MyVaccineGeorgia.com, for booking appointments and for related information about vaccine appointments.

Those who aren’t yet eligible also can sign up at that site and receive updates.

The new mass vaccination sites are open to any legal residents of Georgia, but they must book an appointment at the link above and fall into the A+1 category: