MACON, Ga. — The North Central Health District says they're seeing less of a demand for COVID-19 vaccines than before, and fewer people getting tested for the virus. This is all as health officials say they are preparing for an uptick in cases.
The health district represents 13 Georgia counties: Bibb, Houston, Jones, Crawford, Monroe, Baldwin, Twiggs, Wilkinson, Washington, Putnam, Peach, Hancock and Jasper counties.
Dr. Renee Haynes, the director of the North Central Health District, says they had the highest demand when vaccine eligibility opened for people 65 and older. Still, after eligibility opened up for more Georgians, dozens of people file through their sites, but it's not nearly the demand they saw before.
For the last couple days, the district says they've had hundreds of open appointments.
"If anyone is interested, call the call line, you can get vaccinated the same day that you call if that site is vaccinating on that day," Haynes said.
On Monday, across seven of their sites, they had nearly 800 open appointments that were never filled, according to Michael Hokanson, the district's spokesperson. As of Tuesday afternoon, they had around 300 open slots across five sites.
Haynes says part of that could be because more places offer the vaccine than before.
"We have GEMA site where they can get Pfizer -- that's up and running, and you also have hospitals, et cetera, that's offering the vaccine as well as private physicians," Haynes said.
She says another factor is the hesitancy some have about getting the vaccine.
"This vaccine is safe. It's free of charge here. It's something that helps to protect our community," Haynes said.
Hokanson added that they're also seeing fewer people get tested for the virus --something he says other health districts have noticed, too.
"So just this past week period, we, public health, only performed 58 COVID-19 test in our entire 13 county district. Yeah, so that's definitely a change from what we're seeing from last year around July where we had the massive massive spike in case and a huge demand for testing when we were doing, I want to say, almost 3,000 tests per week," Hokanson said.
The district says right now, they're seeing less COVID-19 cases in the area, but health officials expect an uptick in cases within the next two weeks. Haynes says that's because typically we're about two weeks behind trends in areas like Metro Atlanta. Hokanson says high activity areas of the state, including Atlanta, are seeing an increase in cases.
"It's due to people going out because the warm weather, people going on vacations, spring break, some of the festivals that are on going," Hokanson said.
"I would agree with our state epidemiologist who said it's basically a race between the variants, which a lot of people have heard of and vaccination. If we're not able to vaccinate the amount of people we did before, we'll continue to see more and more variants," Haynes said.
Dr. Haynes says with all of this, it's even more crucial to get your appointment now, roll up your sleeve, and get the vaccine.
If you'd like to get vaccinated at one of the North Central Health District sites through the Department of Public Health, you can call the local number: 478-749-0179.