FMC partners with DPH on COVID shots

As agencies shift to vaccination from testing, partnerships give programs a shot in the arm

Over 700 second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered during the weekend through a joint effort between Floyd Medical Center and the Department of Public Health.

“We were delighted to work with our healthcare community partner, Floyd Medical Center,” said Northwest Health District spokesman Logan Boss. “This eliminated that load off the Floyd County Health Department.”

They’re in talks to stage another vaccination event this weekend, FMC spokesman Dan Bevels said.

“We’re willing to work with the Department of Public Health as much as we can to get this done,” Bevels said. They’re supposed to iron out details in a meeting later this week to administer a round of first doses.

The COVID-19 vaccine is still limited to those designated in the 1A-plus category. Those over 65, their caregivers, and public safety workers like firefighters and police are on the expanded list, which already included healthcare workers.

The hospital received another allocation of the vaccine on Monday but a continuing issue is that vaccine availability is still “erratic and inadequate to meet the current demand,” Boss said.

According to an undated DPH, report several locations in Floyd County have received allocations of the vaccine.

The majority are the Moderna vaccine, with the exception of doses allocated to Floyd and Redmond Regional medical centers, which have the cold storage needed for the Pfizer vaccine.

The numbers for the two hospitals are a combination of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

♦ Floyd County Health Department: 6,300

♦ Floyd Medical Center: 18,750

♦ Harbin Clinic: 300

♦ Kroger Pharmacy: 100

♦ Northwest Health District Pharmacy: 3,100

♦ Publix Pharmacy: 400

♦ Redmond Regional Medical Center: 8,175

♦ Transitions Hospice Care: 300

♦ Walmart Store: 700

♦ Winslette Pharmacy: 500 The report does not list how many doses of those allocated have been administered. However, within the 10 county Northwest Health District over 35,000 vaccines have been administered. Across the state of Georgia so far there have been over 1,200,000 vaccines administered.

Locally, new COVID-19 cases are still emerging at a high rate, despite slowing from a deadly holiday surge. There have been 492 new COVID-19 infections reported within the past two weeks, down from a peak of above 700 for the same period in December and January.

The positivity rate, a measure epidemiologists use to determine whether enough testing has been done to measure the spread of the disease, was above 10% in the past two weeks. That high a percentage indicates that spread of the disease is greater than the numbers show.

Public health districts are switching gears from a focus on testing to a focus on vaccinations. They made the decision based in part on limited resources but also because of a widespread availability of testing from private providers — something that was scarce in the beginning of the pandemic.

“Testing is still a critical component in our efforts to stop or slow down the spread of the virus,” Boss said. “We don’t have the resources to continue doing both and we’re going to devote more resources to vaccinations as more vaccines are available.”

Photos courtesy FMC Above: Carol Story receives her second COVID-19 shot from Floyd Medical Center’s Tara Padgett on Saturday at FMC. Story received her first shot at the Floyd County Health Department. Left: Carolyn and Earl D. Tillman, who received their first shots from the health department, fill out vaccine forms prior to getting their second COVID-19 shots at FMC.

Floyd Medical Center Floyd Medical Center’s Jami Purcell checks someone’s temperature during the vaccination event held Saturday.