Governor Brian Kemp provided a COVID-19 update for the state Tuesday afternoon.
Kemp along with state Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey announced that Georgia will receive a limited number of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines within the next few weeks. Distribution of these vaccines will be limited to healthcare providers working on the frontline as well as both residents and workers of long-term care facilities.
“Yes, we will have a limited number of vaccines that will be distributed in Georgia in the next week to 10 days. However, and this critically important, our first shipments will not be anywhere close enough for anyone in our state to stop following the same public health guidance that we’ve had in place for many months.”
Georgia will receive several hundred thousand doses of the vaccine. That will not be enough for all health-care providers. It will take months before vaccines will be available for the general public.
While the first batch of vaccines is limited to a certain number of people in the state, the Governor and Toomey impressed upon the importance for the rest of Georgia residents to follow COVID guidance - such as wearing a mask, washing your hands, and social distancing - to help slow the spread in the meantime.
The U.S. has now surpassed 15-million coronavirus cases. Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine also reports more than 284-thousand deaths have been recorded.
There are more than 452-thousand confirmed cases in Georgia, with just over 9-thousand deaths. An additional 846 probable deaths have been attributed to the virus. Clarke County has more than 71-hundred cases, 7,120 to be exact, with 55 deaths reported.
