Lauren Martin got a surprise she did not expect Monday morning when she drove to Habersham County for her COVID-19 vaccine.
The teacher from Brookhaven made the drive on the first day she was eligible for the vaccine. Not only did she receive the 10,000th vaccine administered at the Habersham County Fairgrounds since the site’s opening on Feb. 22, but she ended up getting a picture with Gov. Brian Kemp to boot.
Kemp visited the site Monday morning as part of his tour around the state, and he received good news when he arrived. The report given to the governor by GEMA site manager Donald Strength included the news that there had been no waste of vaccine shots, along with the fact that the site was running smoothly after two full weeks in operation.
Kemp praised the operation of the site as a collaboration of federal, state and local officials, several of the latter of which were present to greet him.
Local officials on hand included County Manager Phil Sutton, Sheriff Joey Terrell, Emergency Services Director Chad Black, Judge Chan Caudell, and Habersham County Commissioners Bruce Harkness and Bruce Palmer.
“We are quite honestly ending the pandemic, one shot at a time,” Kemp said. “It was exciting to see the 10,000th dose, which is very exciting especially in a rural part of Georgia like Habersham County. This site is moving the needle just like they are in downtown Atlanta.”
Kemp joked that the Habersham site was a little bit colder than the one at Albany, but he had plenty of kudos to hand out to the National Guard members and locals making the site a success.
“Some people probably wondered early on why we put a site in Habersham County, but it’s all based on data and making the vaccine available to all parts of our state,” Kemp said.
Kemp also praised the physical space at the fairgrounds as being ideal for the mass vaccination site.
“It has been real good,” Terrell said of the site. “There have been no traffic problems at all, and this has been great for the county, I believe.”
Those seeking a vaccine can register at myvaccinegeorgia.com, but if you do not have a computer, you can call 844-275-5388 to get information on how to proceed.
District 2 health departments, including Habersham County, also have received a new supply of vaccines and are open for appointments once again. Those interested in going there can call 1-888-426-5073 or go online at www.phdistrict2.org.
Habersham County is down to 5.6 positive cases per day on its seven-day moving average, the second-lowest figure since Nov. 11.
Kemp said he was pleased with the increased supplies of vaccine that have been coming to Georgia, enabling availability for teachers and residents with developmental disabilities.
“We feel very confident over the next few weeks that, as the supply continues to increase, we will be able to continue to make more Georgians eligible to get the vaccine,” Kemp said. “Our new criteria today will open this up to a million more Georgians.”
Kemp announced that, with a total of 1.4 million people over the age of 65, Georgia has vaccinated more than 900,000 of them, or 64% of its senior population. The national average of seniors receiving at least one dose, according to CDC and American Community Survey data, is 58%.
He also threw out the statistics that only 11% of hospitalizations in the state are COVID-19 related, the lowest since Nov. 10, along with a 6.1% positivity rate, the lowest such figure since mid-October. He attributed much of that to Georgians practicing social distancing, mask wearing and other sanitary measures.
“What we are doing is working, but we have to continue to keep our foot on the gas,” Kemp said.
The vaccine getting to more folks puts us on the path to getting back to normal, particularly in the airline and hospitality industries, the governor noted.
“I think public confidence is growing which will bode well for us as we head from the spring into the summer,” Kemp said.
As the federal government makes more vaccines available, Kemp wants the mass sites to be ready for the expansion for which they were designed.
“Our goal is to make sure we have the bandwidth at these mass vaccination sites to ramp up a week from now before we get the supply two or three weeks from now,” Kemp said.