Georgia began Monday to quell the COVID-19 demand rush for those able to get vaccines into their arms and frustrations for those who couldn’t.
Appointments were quickly filled at vaccination sites in Fulton County, DeKalb County, Macon and Habersham County. Fulton’s vaccine hotline saw an increase in callers trying to get a place in line. Others worked through the many state and pharmacy sign-up websites available to Georgians, only to be met with slots gone and a promise to be contacted at a later date.
Rural areas of Georgia saw the opposite situation, with a shipment of more doses that exceeds the number of people willing or able to take them. Some Atlanta vaccine seekers have been taking advantage of the low demand by booking appointments in distant zip codes, and Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday urged Atlanta-area residents to do just that to prevent vaccines going to waste.
The governor’s office said the state is considering redirecting vaccine allotments to areas with higher demand.
“The metro-Atlanta mass vaccination sites are completely booked this week,” a Kemp spokeswoman said in a written statement. “Outside of the Atlanta area, the Habersham and Lakepoint (which opens next week) sites are booked as well. Governor Kemp urges eligible Georgians in the metro Atlanta area who are unable to get an appointment to consider driving to a south Georgia site where appointments are more available.”
Eva Lee, a vaccine distribution expert and director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Operations Research in Medicine and Healthcare, queried how metro Atlanta’s working poor are supposed to take time off work and make a six- to eight-hour round trip drive. Ideally, she said, people should have to drive no more than 10 to 20 miles to reach a vaccine site.
“It’s a burden for working people,” said Lee. “How do you think these people will ever get vaccinated?”
Successful Shots
Monday, despite the aforementioned glitches, those who managed to book appointments found operations running smoothly at vaccination sites.
DeKalb County health officials operating a vaccination site at the Doraville MARTA station scheduled 420 appointments Monday, most for the second shot. People waited in their vehicles before being called inside two giant white tents to get the vaccine.
The Georgia Department of Public Health has not completed first-day statistics yet on appointments booked or doses administered statewide.