BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — Here in Georgia, just over a million shots have been handed out. Half of them have gone to seniors.
The governor tolds11Alive our clinics could be doing even more if they weren't limited by the supply coming from the federal government.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Dr. Kathleen Toomey, head of the Georgia Department of Public Health, visited a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at a Kroger store in Brookhaven on Thursday.
During the visit, Kemp said the clinics are running smoothly and they're getting patients in and out. But, he said the problem remains the limited supply the state is getting from the federal government.
"Some of the bigger systems like Grady and others – they literally have hundreds of thousands of patients that are eligible for the vaccine right now, that they can't get the vaccine to because of the supply," he said.
Following the tour, the governor share that Atlanta metro hospitals have seen a 20% decrease in COVID patients over the last couple weeks.
"Their numbers continue to get better," Kemp said. "Those that they think may have COVID symptoms that they're testing – that number is decreasing as well."
Kemp added that he does not expect shipments from the federal government to increase beyond the 154,000 doses each week. Dr. Toomey said that while they wait on vaccines, they're preparing vaccination sites for another wave of eager patients - especially seniors.
"We're hopeful that we'll be able to vaccinate all of our seniors because when you look at who this disease really impacts across the state, it's our seniors," she said.
Meanwhile, Kemp said he's looking ahead, hoping that Georgia will be able to vaccinate significantly more people in the coming months, if the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also approved
The governor's visit came just one day after he and Dr. Toomey went to a drive-thru COVID vaccination site at Cobb County's Jim Miller Park.
During his Wednesday morning Cobb County visit, Kemp provided an update on COVID-19 vaccine distribution across the state. He also mentioned how Georgians need to stay on guard.
The governor said although the vaccine is here and more people are getting shots every day, "we are also still in a deadly race against a highly contagious virus."
Kemp said now is not the time for Georgians to stop following public health guidance of wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and washing hands.
"This has proven to work in limiting the spread of COVID-19 especially in light of the new variants that we are certainly dealing with now," Kemp said.
"I mentioned the new strains spreading quickly in places like Brazil and others, and we know that those variants, we have to assume that they're here. We need to stay on guard in regards to that," he added.
As of Tuesday, the state said Georgia has at least 23 known cases of the B.1.1.7 UK variant in nine counties. That is up from 19 cases reported earlier in the week.
Toomey previously stated this variant (B.1.1.7), according to the CDC, will likely be the dominant strain in the United States by March. The public health agency said this variant is "significantly more contagious" than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and "may increase the risk of death."
The governor said that in Georgia, so far, more than 1 million people have now had at least one shot administered, with more than 500,000 of those people being seniors.