Millions more Georgians will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine as of this Thursday, March 25th, when the state will open vaccine eligibility to all Georgians over the age of 16. The announcement came from Governor Brian Kemp at a late afternoon press conference on Tuesday.
The Governor also played defense on the state’s vaccination rate, which has drawn criticism from some. Reporting from the New York Times says that Georgia is near the bottom of the list in terms of the percentage of states’ residents who have received at least one shot. Kemp pointed to CDC data to bolster his case, saying, “We must always do better at getting shots into arms. There’s no doubt about that. But, we are also 49th out of 50 states in vaccines shipped to us by the federal government per 100,000 residents.”
As of mid-day Tuesday, some 3.2 million vaccines had been given in Georgia. That’s about 81% of the total number of doses shipped to the state. In Athens-Clarke County, health care providers have given out over 52,000 vaccines.
