Gadsden/Etowah County Emergency Management Agency Director Deborah Gaither said Thursday s COVID-19 vaccination effort went fair, allowing room for improvement in the process.
The agency worked with the Etowah County Health Department in a drive-thru vaccination effort for first responders, health care providers and people 75 or older that administered vaccine to between 450 and 500 people, Gaither told members of the Gadsden City Council on Tuesday.
She said it s important to remember this is the first time anyone involved has participated in a vaccination effort of this scope.
There were long lines that snarled traffic in East Gadsden around The Venue at Coosa Landing, and some people waited in lines for hours with some leaving cars to go for a bathroom break at nearby businesses, or leaving the line entirely if they couldn t leave their car only to be turned away when the supply of vaccine ran out.
When will Alabama teachers receive COVID vaccine?
Updated Jan 06, 2021;
Posted Jan 06, 2021
FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2021, file photo, healthcare worker receives a second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot.AP
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Alabama teachers will likely receive the COVID-19 vaccinations in the coming months, officials said.
Teachers, both public and private, education staff and childcare workers are in the 1B group, putting them just behind frontline healthcare workers and residents and staff of nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Teachers fall into the category with people 75 and older; people who live in group settings, including homeless shelters, group homes, prison or jails; and first responders, including firefighters and law enforcement.
A number of first responders took an important step in the battle against COVID-19 on Tuesday, when they received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine at the Etowah County Health Department.
However, the department s nurse supervisor, Jennifer Weeks, cautioned that this is the first step it will take a second dose of the vaccine and a couple of weeks before people should consider themselves protected from the virus. You are not Superman, she said, after this first shot in the arm. You still need to observe all the guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
First responders and health care professionals were lined up outside the health department before the vaccinations were slated to start at 8:30 a.m. Weeks said the department had about 500 doses to distribute.
The Gadsden/Etowah County Emergency Management Agency website provides real-time information about the COVID-19 situation in the county, Director Deborah Gaither said and based on that information, the situation is really serious.
Gaither said Etowah County s overall COVID-19 risk level is severe; the daily number of new cases is ranked as extreme. While statistics peg the infection rate as medium, the positivity rate among those tested is a critical 28.2%.
When she updated the Gadsden City Council this week, Gaither said Etowah County s ICU capacity had not been updated for Tuesday; the day before, it was 100%.
According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, Etowah County s cumulative number of cases Tuesday was 9,206 7,383 confirmed and 1,823 probable cases since March. The county added 152 confirmed new cases and 71 probable cases Tuesday 1,759 cases in the last 14 days.