Vaccines Received In Belmont County
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Belmont County's health department has received its first shipment of the Moderna version of COVID-19 vaccine, which does not require deep-cold storage. Belmont County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul said Tuesday that 300 doses are ready.
"My director of nursing has started contacting agencies," Sproul said in a text.
In a later interview, Sproul said Barnesville Hospital, CVS and Walgreens are also getting their own shipments.
"We're all tasked with getting certain groups of people," Sproul said, adding the CVS and Walgreens responsible for administering the vaccine at nursing homes and congregate setting facilities, while the hospital is tasked with vaccinating health workers.
"The health department, we have a long list of people," Sproul said. The recipients will include home health workers, hospice workers, emergency medical service responders, primary care practitioners, free-standing emergency departments, urgent care sites, pharmacies, dialysis providers, dental providers, mobile unit practitioners, and high-risk ancillary health care staff, as well as the two health department nurses who will be administering the vaccine.
Sproul said there was no danger of having any doses left over. He doubted his department had enough in this initial shipment to meet demands.
"So far, we've got over 75 EMS workers who are already interested in receiving the shot," Sproul said. "We have a huge number of people we're going to have to work through. The state's going to have to get us a lot more vaccine.
"In addition, this is a two-dose vaccine. We'll get this 300, and in 28 days we'll have to re-vaccinate those 300 people again with their second dose," Sproul said.
His office is scheduling the first vaccinations.
"We're working to get those done quickly, because we want to get the vaccine out," he said. "We also have to be very cautious. It comes in 10-dose vials, and once we open that vial, we have to use it within six hours, or we have to throw it away. We have to make sure we have those people ready to go when we start the shots, because we do not want to throw any vaccine away.
"We're asking the public to be patient. It's going to be awhile before we're at the level of getting it to the public," he added.
According to Lindsay Dowdle, spokeswoman for Barnesville Hospital, the hospital has not received its vaccine doses yet. Walgreens could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Sproul also reported an increase in cases in Belmont County, along with one more death associated with the virus.
There have been 3,274 positive cases since the onset of the pandemic, with 968 people isolated with active cases, while 2,168 people have recovered. There are 57 people hospitalized with the virus, and Belmont County marked it's 61st death associated with the pandemic. The latest is a man in his 60s. A 60th death was reported Monday, and there have been several deaths weekly since November.