County Mayor Jim Coppinger said Thursday that people still need to be “extremely cautious” even as numbers are starting to trend down. He said there are around 1,500 active cases, and hospitalizations are starting to decrease.
“We’re trending in the right direction, but this is the time to be extremely cautious so we can continue to minimize the spread in our community,” County Mayor Coppinger said.
“We have testing seven and six days a week at Alstom and CEMPA. If you’re symptomatic or think you’ve been exposed, we highly recommend you get tested to exclude you from being a spreader.”
He thanked the workers in the health department and volunteers for their work, and said vaccinations are going well. He said that starting on the 19th, appointments will begin to be scheduled at the third site at Enterprise South Nature Park.
“It’s drive through and it’s by appointment only. As we’ve said before, if we had more vaccine we could do more people. We have the capacity to do more people, we just don’t have the vaccine product at this time.”
He said the partnership with CARTA has been excellent, and said the bus barn has been a great asset. He also shouted out Clinica Medicos for their work with the Hispanic Community. County Mayor Coppinger said pastors within the African American community have also been of great assistance.
“We are not involved with the Walmart situation, that is strictly the federal government that is providing vaccine there. So if you have any issues with Walmart, our health department cannot offer assistance there. That is a federal program,” he said.
Dr. Mark Anderson said numbers are falling, and that hospital staff are being vaccinated. But he also said that COVID is still out there and very infectious.
“People are getting admitted and deaths are still happening, and that’s mostly elderly,” Dr. Anderson said. “I think that leads to younger people thinking their risk is very small. Something we’ve seen is that people who have a very mild illness or even a more severe illness that doesn’t mandate a hospital stay, that still leads to complications even if they’re younger and in excellent health.”
He said younger people with ongoing problems with COVID are having to be taken care of. He said lung damage and blood clots are ongoing symptoms. Dr. Anderson said heart and lung damage can occur, and the central nervous system can be damaged.
“Some people have called it a COVID brain fog, where they have a little more trouble with memory and recall and higher mental functioning. So this infection has a mild effect on many people, but it is more dangerous than many people understand.”
Health Department Administrator Becky Barnes said the department has received 37,750 doses of vaccine, and have given 24,992, and have appointed 11,518 appointments for both first and second doses. She said the county has received around 5,000 more vaccines this week, and community partners have received more as well.
“If you missed getting an appointment, keep watching,” Ms. Barnes said. “Our staff go over the appointments, and if they find duplicates or cancel, those appointments will appear in the slot.”
She said of the 37,000 who have received the first dose of the vaccine, around 8,000 have received a second dose.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger