MACON, Ga. — The North Central Health District reopened their phone lines Monday as they received another limited shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine and they're still looking for volunteers.
Since it opened, the phone line has been jammed.
Thousands are trying to schedule their vaccine appointment and Michaela Gray, who supervises that call line, says it has been overwhelming.
"For me, I anticipated it a little bit," she says. "I did expect a lot, but was I expecting this much of a lot? Not really."
They now have two lines open and close to 30 people answering the phone compared to the one line and 16 people they had two weeks ago.
"As long as we can just be patient, we'll try to get as many people vaccinated as we can," says Gray.
Spokesman Michael Hokanson says they have received a limited amount of resources from the state, like some extra staff and repurposing state contact tracers into other vaccine response roles.
"They have limited resources to send down to us and they are not just dealing with 13 counties like we are. They are dealing with all 159 counties within the state of Georgia," says Hokanson.
He says they are still looking for certified volunteers to administer vaccines.
"You cannot pull anybody off the street and tell them, 'Here is a bunch of vaccines, go do good work,'" but he says finding those volunteers has been difficult.
"We're also competing with everybody else asking for volunteers or hiring people who can give vaccine and of course, public health, in terms of paying individuals, we can't compete with private hospitals."
It's also even harder in the smaller, more rural counties.
Where they stand with staffing now, they're able to vaccinate 6,100 people per week, but that's only if the state sends enough doses.
"I know somebody put it like, 'We're trying to assemble the airplane while we're still flying.' There's going to be improvements along with way, but the flight is going to be bumpy."
He says across the 13-county district, they currently have 46 certified people administering the vaccine.
As of Saturday, they've administered 8,904 doses.
To sign up to give the vaccine or work with the health district on the vaccine roll out, visit SERVGA.
Again, there are now two phone lines available to make your vaccine appointment with the North Central Health District.
The first is 478-749-0179. The other is 1-844-987-0099.