Times Leader Staff Writer
ST. CLAIRSVILLE Comparatively few people are electing to receive COVID-19 vaccinations compared to earlier this year, but the Belmont County Health Department continues to administer shots.
“We’re definitely seeing less and less people each week,” Linda Mehl, department director of nursing, said. “This week we only had about 250 or so scheduled (for second doses) and we were doing walk-ins all afternoon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. They’re kind of trickling in.”
The Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna versions of the vaccine each require two doses administered about a month apart.
“It’s definitely a lot less than we’ve done the past several weeks, but I don’t think we’re unique in that,” Mehl said.
Times Leader Staff Writer
ST. CLAIRSVILLE Fewer people are electing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but doses are still available.
Belmont County Deputy Health Commissioner Robert Sproul said people vaccinated in Belmont County are overwhelmingly senior citizens who are more vulnerable to death or long-term conditions from the coronavirus. Sproul said a relatively high number of younger people who are more active socially, and thus more likely to spread the virus, also have received the shots.
This leaves a less-motivated middle demographic.
“On May 3 we had 24 positives. Nobody was under the age of 16, and we only had three above age 60 that were positives. The rest of them were in the middle, with the average age of about 42.