AT LEAST 50% of those eligible fully vaccinated in Washington and Benton counties.

Officials laud breakthrough, say more work still ahead

Washington and Benton counties hit milestones this week with at least half of their residents ages 12 and older now fully vaccinated, according to Arkansas Department of Health data.

There’s still a lot of work left to get thousands more residents immunized, health officials say.

Washington County reached the 50% mark last weekend, said Marti Sharkey, Fayetteville’s public health officer. Benton County breached the mark Friday, according to Health Department data.

As of Friday, nearly 51% of 200,760 Washington County residents 12 and older were fully vaccinated. In Benton County, 50% of 231,247 eligible residents were fully vaccinated.

Washington and Benton counties join a dozen other counties in the state with at least half of their populations fully vaccinated. Only Washington, Benton and Pulaski counties have more than 100,000 residents among the group.

Surpassing 50% is a great goal to reach, but it’s not the end, Sharkey said. It will take about 150,000 more vaccinated people to achieve herd immunity with 85% fully immunized in the two counties, she said.

The pool of eligible residents also is about to get

wider, Sharkey said. Pfizer is preparing to seek approval in coming weeks from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to give its vaccine to 5to 11-year-olds, according to Reuters news service.

“So we have a lot of work to do, and we’re going to be combining that with flu vaccines this fall,” Sharkey said. “We need a lot more shots in arms between now and winter.”

Vaccination rates vary within Benton County, but overall, the milestone means less strain on health care systems and economic stability, said Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins. Jenkins heads a regional covid-19 task force comprising representatives of health care providers, cities, schools, counties, and police and fire departments.

The milestone is a result of the combined efforts of regional partners to hold vaccination clinics and make shots widely available at pharmacies, schools or wherever people are, Jenkins said.

“There’s been a lot of synergy and teamwork that I think signals the togetherness and the regionalism we boast about in Northwest Arkansas,” he said. “My hope is that number continues to climb.”

Sebastian County had nearly 43% of 107,538 residents fully vaccinated as of Friday. However, the percentage has climbed quicker in the past two months than it has in Washington and Benton counties.

On July 15, about 25% of eligible Sebastian County residents were fully vaccinated. The rate climbed nearly 20 percentage points from then to now.

Washington and Benton counties’ rates rose about 10 percentage points in the same time frame.

Jeff Turner, Sebastian County assistant administrator, said he thinks the rise of the delta variant has hit residents close to home.

“This strain has probably made it a little more real for some people. They’ve seen people who were not in the classes of being the most vulnerable get very sick and unfortunately die. We’ve lost some younger people,” he said. “I think that partially was a wake-up call.”

The FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine in late August also likely helped persuade the hesitant to get shots, Turner said.