It’s been a little more than a year since the vaccine made its debut in Lumpkin County. And much has changed since those early days when shots were highly in demand and hard to find.
“Twelve months since that first small allotment of vaccine, about 6,000 doses, and the initial shots were administered, more than 6 million Georgians have received at least one dose of vaccine, nearly 5.5 million Georgians are fully vaccinated, and 1.2 [million] Georgians have gotten booster doses,” stated Georgia Department of Health official Natasha Young in a recent release.
GDPH commissioner Dr. Kathleen E. Toomey credited that development with ultimately providing “a path out of the pandemic.”
“Countless lives have been saved thanks to the COVID vaccine,” she said. “A year ago, the vaccine couldn’t come soon enough. … People were anxious and lining up to get their shot.”
At the same time health officials stressed the need to continue to line up for that shot. Last week the local COVID count grew by a reported 44 cases last week, bringing the overall total to 4,658 positive cases since the onset of the pandemic, according to data provided by the GDPH.
Lumpkin County also saw one local resident hospitalized over that period. As of Monday, a cumulative total of 436 residents had been hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms.
Thankfully no deaths were reported during this time span.
The local death toll now stands at 94.
Meanwhile Toomey noted that the majority of patients diagnosed daily in in the state are unvaccinated.
“Our COVID vaccines are safe and effective and can prevent severe illness and death from COVID,” she said. “If you are someone who wanted to ‘wait and see’ about the vaccine, please don’t wait any longer. As long as people are not vaccinated, COVID will continue to spread, and variants will continue to emerge.”
