“You’re probably going to have a sore arm, and you may feel a little tired for a day or so,” MedLink nurse Trish Jones told Hartwell resident Lou Ann Farrar on Friday, Jan. 15 before injecting Farrar with the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
“Well that is better than getting COVID,” Farrar answered with an audible laugh from behind her mask.
Jones and other MedLink nurses and administrative staff administered 100 vaccine doses on Friday in Hartwell, the first of what the nonprofit community health clinic plans to be many mass vaccination events at its clinics throughout Northeast Georgia in the coming weeks and months.
“We’re the pilot site,” said Dr. Daniel Gordon, a family medicine doctor at the Hartwell clinic.
He hopes Friday’s event will be the first step in increasing vaccine administration locally. He also hopes people realize the importance of getting the vaccine and actually take it the first chance they have to get it.
“It works. It’s safe. It’s the only thing that can get us back to normal,” Gordon said.
That was Farrar’s thinking.
“I’m 72 and there’s a lot of things I have left to do,” she said. “I don’t want to get COVID.”
Jones informed her that in two weeks following the first dose, Farrar should have 50 percent of the vaccine’s protection. About two weeks after the second dose, she should have the full protection offered by the vaccine.
“It is incredibly important to get that second shot,” Gordon said.
Events like Friday’s will become more and more important as the vaccine becomes more widely available, Gordon said.
As it is now, short supply of the vaccine and a lack of staffing to administer it at local health departments in Public Health District 2, which includes Hart County, has made the rollout slower than many people had hoped. There is normally one nurse manager to cover both the Franklin and Hart County health departments who is supported by a few office and social-worker staff members. County administrator Terrell Partain said at a county commission meeting last week that more staff is being brought in, but also that people would still need to be patient as the call center at District 2 headquarters in Gainesville and websites where people can attempt to schedule an appointment have been overwhelmed by the demand. Gordon, who was appointed to the local board of health last week, added that he is aware of efforts to increase availability of appointments for shots and for larger vaccination events.
That is why Gordon said it is so important for healthcare providers like MedLink to administer as many as they can when they have the doses, because right now, “we don’t always know exactly how many we will have and when.”
Once there is enough available for larger and more frequent shipments, both the health departments and providers should be able to schedule shots more efficiently, he added.
MedLink has been giving 40 doses per week over the last three weeks. After Friday, it had given at least 200 doses in Hart County. MedLink had given 700 total systemwide. That number is expected to keep increasing. MedLink Hartwell can be reached at 706-376-6100.
Ingle’s pharmacy locations in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee began administering vaccines last week as well, including the Hartwell Ingle’s location. Registering for an appointment online at Ingle’s is available at ingles-markets.com by clicking on the pharmacy tab at the top of the page and choosing the COVID-19 vaccinations option.
As of Tuesday morning, the DPH’s vaccine order list showed the Hart County Health Department had ordered 700 vaccines and had been allocated 600 in the most recent shipments. Ingle’s ordered 800 doses, but were allocated 200. MedLink ordered 200 and were allocated 200.
Scheduling through the Hart County Health Department can be attempted online at phdistrict2.org, or by calling 1-888-426-5073 or 770-531-5692, but heavy demand has clogged systems, the District 2 officials have said.
Gov. Brian Kemp said this week that for the second week in a row, Georgia has doubled its number of reported vaccinations from 206,900 to 423,011 from Jan. 11 to Jan. 18.
“While supply for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 remains extremely limited, these numbers show encouraging progress in our efforts to work through backlogs in provider reporting and get Georgians vaccinated quickly and safely,” Kemp said.
The Hart County Health Department has vaccinated 343 people so far. District 2 Public Health spokesperson Dave Palmer confirmed the departments in the district are working with “community partners” to schedule events to vaccinate more people, but details not available yet.
VIRUS NUMBERS
Local virus statistics continue to increase, but at a slightly slower rate than in recent weeks. Hart County, as of Tuesday afternoon’s report, had accumulated 1,435 cases since the DPH began tracking them in March. In the past two weeks 185 cases were reported, a rate of 709 per 100,000 during that time, which still puts Hart County in the realm of high transmission counties, according to the DPH.
The department has reported 24 confirmed deaths and 13 probable deaths from the virus.
Ann Campbell, a bookkeeper and former teacher at Hart County High School who had been battling the virus, died on Jan. 16, a post on social media from the high school said.
“You could always count on Ms. Campbell to cheer you on at ballgames and do whatever she could to help anyone at HCHS,” the post said.
Campbell was 51 and had worked for the school system since 1991. She became a math teacher in 1993 and then moved into the bookkeeper position in 2016. Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m., Jan. 23, at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Bowman.
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