More Georgians will soon be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine starting Monday, including all teachers and school staff members and people who work in child care facilities. New vaccination guidelines signed by Gov. Brian Kemp will also provide shots to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and parents of children with complex medical conditions.
These groups will be added to existing guidelines qualifying anyone 65 and above and their caregivers, health care workers, residents and staff of long-term care facilities and all law enforcement personnel, firefighters and first responders.
To accommodate the additional demand for vaccines, Georgia will open five additional mass-vaccination sites on March 17, including one at Waycross Mall and another at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah.
Newly eligible people can start signing up Friday at www.MyVaccineGeorgia.com.
Over the last two months, 1.3 million Georgians have received at least one shot and 833,000 are totally vaccinated, according to the Department of Public Health’s dashboard on Thursday. That’s 13% of Georgians that are at least partly vaccinated.
Kemp said the 83,000 doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine that the state expects to get this week will be prioritized for education employees. The governor continues to pair his prioritization of school systems with a call for all schools to reopen for full-time in-person instruction.
Kemp announced Wednesday the new rules make one million additional people in the state eligible for receiving the vaccine.
“If you’re 65 years old or older, or if you’re a caregiver of someone over 65, I encourage you to make your appointment now,” said Health Director for the Coastal Health District, Dr. Lawton Davis. “As more people become eligible for the vaccine, we expect an increased demand for appointments, so this is a great time to book an appointment if you fall into the current phase.”
Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Georgia has administered only 68% of the vaccines it has received and has 1 million unadministered doses. The data show only the District of Columbia and Kansas lag further behind.
Georgia officials have disputed the CDC data for weeks and said some health providers are slow to report when they put shots in arms. The state’s own numbers show it has given 76% of available vaccines, which would be in the middle of the pack among states, if no other states were allowed to adjust their numbers. Still, that’s 700,000 doses on hand, when the state is getting 200,000 doses this week, rising to 223,000 next week.
“We can’t control who’s holding second doses,” Kemp said. “I don’t think they should be doing that. They should be giving those doses. The supply chain is caught up. They don’t need to be doing that any more. They need to get shots in arms.”
Kemp also touted declining infections in long term care facilities and swiftly falling hospitalizations. The number of patients in hospitals has fallen by more than two-thirds since peaking in mid-January, according to state figures.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.