Georgia COVID vaccine shortage Archives

Georgia COVID vaccine shortage

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp looked behind him at the COVID-19 vaccination set-up at Jim Miller Park on Wednesday and pointed to a trickle of cars coming through one lane, and another with no traffic at all.

“If we had more supply, that lane that is empty would be full of cars,” Kemp said during a news conference at the site that Cobb and Douglas Public Health has set up for the public to receive vaccines.

“This operation is exemplary, said Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The problem is there aren’t many vaccines to distribute, so it’s a venue that isn’t very busy right now.

That’s because of a severe supply shortage of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that arrived in early January.

The issues aren’t just limited to Cobb and Georgia, but the time being, Cobb and Douglas Public Health isn’t booking new appointments.

This is what the Georgia Department of Public Health is calling Phase 1A+ and those eligible are seniors age 65 and older, first responders, law enforcement personnel and health care workers.

Of the 1 million vaccines distributed by Georgia DPH—or roughly two-thirds of what the state has received from the federal government—502,393 have been first shots for seniors.

While Kemp said he was happy with that progress, it’s far from being enough. He said that Georgia’s weekly allotment of vaccines from the federal government is being pushed up from around 120,000 doses to more than 154,000 doses, starting as soon as next week.

But with 2 million people eligible in Phase 1A+, including 1.3 million seniors, there’s still a long way to go.

“The supply does not meet the demand that we have in our state,” said Kemp, who was joined by Toomey, Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark and Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.

The additional supplies are welcome, he added, but “it’s not going to change our shortage.”

Cobb and Douglas Public Health had been vaccinating around 700 people a day in Phase 1A+, but stopped taking new appointments last Friday, when it was able to give out only 400 shots.

Memark said the vaccine doses the agency has are being used for those people who had previous appointments. In a previous briefing to Cobb commissioners, she was hopeful that Jim Miller Park could distribute around 1,000 people daily.

Valerie Crow, a spokeswoman for Cobb and Douglas Public Health, could not say when vaccine appointments would resume and said “we don’t know what to expect as far as vaccine supply.”

Those eligible can get a vaccine through a medical provider and other locations like pharmacies, but “their vaccine supply has also been limited.”

Crow said those individuals who have received an initial vaccination will be contacted about booking a second appointment. “We have a team working on this now,” she said.

Citizens in Phase 1A+ don’t have to be vaccinated in their county of residence, and Georgia DPH has set up locator site with information on availability. The only requirement, Crow said, is that they be Georgia residents.

While a new variant of COVID-19 is emerging in the metro Atlanta area, case rates are falling throughout the state.

The seven-day moving average has fallen 46 percent in Georgia from its high of 6,353 on Jan. 11.

In Cobb, that number also has fallen rapidly, from 576 on Jan. 12 to 275 on Thursday, according to the Georgia DPH daily status report.

The level of community spread also has dropped significantly in Cobb, to a 14-day average of 562 cases per 100,000 people. In January, that figure was over 1,000.

Cobb reported 268 new cases on Thursday and seven deaths, following 11 deaths reported on Wednesday. Since the COVID pandemic began last March, there have been 51,668 cases in Cobb County and 723 deaths.

In Georgia there were 6,066 new PCR and antigen tests reported and 141 deaths on Thursday. In the state, a total of 13,048 people have died from COVID since last March.

“We’re still in a deadly race against a very contagious virus,” Kemp said. “This virus is killing too many of our fellow Georgians.”

Kemp and health officials urged the public to remain cautious and practice the 3Ws—washing hands, wearing masks, and practicing social distancing.

“We still have a lot of fighting to do in Cobb County,” Memark said. “We still have a lot of hope that comes with this vaccine.”