GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Georgia's vaccine distribution is about to expand, health leaders announced Monday. Gov. Brian Kemp announced CVS and Walgreens pharmacies would partner with more than 600 long nursing home and long-term care facilities to begin administering the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The pharmacies will help vaccinate 40,000 such facilities nationwide.
Kemp spoke at Pruitt Health's The Oaks - Limestone facility in Gainesville. He was joined by Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, and Frank Berry, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health.
Hall County ranks in the top 5 in COVID-19 cases in Georgia with nearly 17,000 and ranks sixth in deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Hall County also has a 7-day moving average positivity rate of 24%.
It has been two weeks since Georgia received its first doses of the vaccine. Toomey said the Peach State is slated to receive half a million doses of the vaccine by next month; however, the Georgia Department of Public Health's website showed around 26,000 Georgians had been vaccinated as of Monday afternoon. The site also showed there are 914 providers enrolled to be able to distribute the vaccine.
"There will be providers in all of your neighborhoods that will be able to make this vaccine available," Toomey said.
Georgia's vaccine distribution rollout is coming in phases, with frontline healthcare workers and staff and residents in nursing home or long-term care facilities included in the first round of vaccine recipients. Toomey said residents and staff in long-term care facilities represent 5% of COVID-19 cases in Georgia, but they also represent 37% of deaths in the state.
Toomey said 95% of Georgia's long-term care facilities will engage in the new pharmacy partnership to distribute the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Governor said Georgia has spent $78 million in relief funds from federal and state government, along with private corporations, to address the coronavirus in nursing homes. More funding is expected to come Georgia's way in the form of a recently signed COVID relief bill.
Georgia experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the weeks following Thanksgiving. Kemp said Northeast Georgia Health System is currently seeing highest COVID patient volume yet and has the largest number of COVID patients in the state. He warns the situation could get worse.
"COVID-19 still presents a threat to Georgians," Kemp said. "We still need every Georgian to do their part to stop the spread of the virus as we face the new year and the rest of the winter season."
In an effort to alleviate hospital systems statewide, Kemp said the Georgia World Congress Center could start accepting coronavirus patients temporarily starting this week.
Toomey on Monday also announced the state has opened a COVID-19 vaccine hotline, staffed by employees from the Georgia Poison Center. Georgians can call (888) 357-0169 to ask vaccine-related questions.
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Gov. Brian Kemp and the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, will provide an update today on COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the state.
The governor and public health commissioner will be at The Oaks at Limestone nursing home in Gainesville for a news conference at 10 a.m.
11Alive will be streaming the news conference in the video player above and on our YouTube channel.
According to a release, Frank Berry, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health, will also be on hand.
The officials will "provide an update on COVID-19 vaccine administration," a release said.