Last week IAG wrote that Georgia’s COVID-19 vaccination rates were lagging behind those of its neighbors, with just 1.6% of the population having received at least one dose of the vaccine as of last Thursday. Good news – state health officials have stepped up their game, doubling the total number of doses doled out over the past week and raising Georgia’s vaccine percentage to 3.9%.
423,011 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been administered as of Monday evening, with another 500,000 doses already in the state and ready to go. The state remains in “Phase 1A” of its vaccine administration procedure, which means the vaccine is going first to healthcare workers, nursing home staff, adults over the age of 65, and law enforcement personnel. If you find yourself among those groups and haven’t been vaccinated/aren’t yet scheduled to be, you can find the closest vaccination site to you HERE.
Part of the improved rollout is thanks to public-private partnerships with partners including Publix, Kroger, Ingles, Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens. They have taken some of the burden off of county and state health departments, allowing patients to sign up for and receive the vaccine at additional locations.
On Tuesday Gov. Brian Kemp praised the state’s vaccination efforts: “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,” said Kemp. “Thanks to the hard work of public health officials and the support of private sector partners like Publix, Kroger, Ingles, Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens, we are making strides to vaccinate our expanded 1a populations. We still have a long way to go, but we will continue working tirelessly to get shots in arms and win the fight against COVID-19.”
