The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was given in Brown County on December 22. Since then the effort as continued as supplies allow.
“To date, we have received 300 vaccines. We have given more than 170 vaccines to EMS and other first responders, a few people who work in the jail and local healthcare workers,” said Brown County Health Department Public Health Nurse Pamela Williams.
Those workers include home health aides and other workers who come in contact with multiple elderly individuals.
“We have all reached out to the doctor’s offices in the county to vaccinate their staffs as well,” Williams said.
100 doses are released to the local health department at a time from the ODH. At this point, Williams cannot order the vaccine. She just has to work with what she receives.
Margary Paeltz serves as a Public Information Officer for the Brown County Health Department.
We have been getting people calling us and telling us they want the vaccine, but we have to tell them that we have to get through phase 1A first.”
Phase 1A is intended for frontline healthcare workers, first responders and those who live and work in congregant care facilities like nursing homes.
Phase 1B, which has not had a start date released, will be for people over 65 years of age, those with severe medical disorders and those who work in schools.
According to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, there are approximately 900,000 people in Group 1A and 2.2 million in Group 1B. At the current time, Ohio is receiving about 100,000 doses per week.
“As soon as we get enough vaccine to do a major public vaccination effort, we will do that. We will release the information about where and when as soon as we can. But right now, we just don’t have enough information to be able to commit to a date yet,” Paeltz said.
Williams said that there is some hesitation among some people to take the vaccine.
“Not all of our first responders have been willing to take it, so we have not administered it to as many people as we hoped to.”
She said she hopes that more people will be willing to get vaccinated as the effort moves forward.
“I understand the hesitancy to take the vaccine, but we know vaccines work. They do stop the spread of communicable diseases. We encourage people who have questions to call us or seek out the information themselves to get informed,” Williams said.
Paeltz said that she expects the experience of others who have taken the vaccine will help convince others.
“The people that have come in and gotten it have spread good news about it and hopefully eased some concerns that people have,” Paeltz said.
Williams agreed, saying “I have been very happy with the feedback that we have gotten so far from people who have gotten the vaccine. If we ever want to be able to start living again, we need to get vaccinated.”
In the meantime, Williams said that people have to continue to do what they’ve been asked to do for almost a year.
“We know that the masks, washing your hands and social distancing works if people do it. When you relax and stop doing it, that’s when you get community spread.” she said. “We are having some spread from the holidays. People got tired, they wanted to be with their families and let their guard down and now we are in another surge.”
Williams also wanted to send out some encouragement to those who are still in the fight.
“We in the health department would like to say thank you to everyone who is doing the right thing and trying to slow the spread.”
The latest county COVID numbers show Brown County in red status.
405 new cases in the past two weeks have been reported in the county, for a per capita rate of 932.5, the sixth highest in the state.
There have been 2616 cases documented locally since March, with 788 of those coming in November and 1246 in December. So far, 190 cases have been reported in January.
Of those 2744 cases reported so far, 2406 have recovered, with 221 currently ill at home and 16 in the hospital. 15 deaths have been reported in Brown County since March.
Cumulative cases in local school districts include eight staff cases from the Brown County Educational Service Center, 22 students and 12 staff members at Eastern, 36 students and 27 staff members in Fayetteville, 22 students and 10 staff members in Georgetown, 11 students and 17 staff members in Ripley, 14 students and two staff members at Southern Hills and 52 students and 31 staff members at Western Brown.
In local long term care facilities, cumulative numbers are 10 residents and five staff members at Close to Home, 36 residents and two staff members at Locust Ridge, 15 residents and 26 staff members at Ohio Valley Manor, 80 residents and 58 staff members at the Ohio Veterans Home and 48 residents and 30 staff members at Villa Georgetown.
Statewide, 753,068 cases have been reported since March, with 40,469 hospitalizations, 6092 ICU admissions and 9462 deaths.
