MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The push to get more shots in arms in Memphis and Shelby County will soon enter a new phase, which will include a much younger age group for the first time.
“A reminder; moving into next week, we open up appointments on Friday and next week we’ll be vaccinating everyone 16 and up,” said Doug McGowen, City of Memphis chief operating officer.
Shelby County expects more vaccines from state soon, as eligibility opens to all adults
McGowen says he’s not sure how many appointments will be available, but he does believe demand will be high.
“As many vaccine doses that I have on hand, that’s how many appointments I will have next week because as I talked on Tuesday, we believe we will come close to running out on Thursday of next week heading into Easter,” McGowen said.
He expects a larger allotment of vaccine in the second week of April, but health leaders did voice concerned about vaccine hesitancy.
“You’re right that 70% willing to be vaccinated versus 30% saying ‘I’m not so sure,’ that puts us at the point we have to be to get the bare minimum of herd immunity,” said Shelby County Health Department Deputy Director David Sweat.
There’s also concern over increasing numbers of cases in the community caused by the UK strain or B117.
“It is highly transmissible, three times more easily caught than the Wuhan strain is. It’s also 20% more lethal. Vaccine does protect against it,” Sweat said.
Health leaders say they’re also working to get the vaccine to the Latino community by having more bilingual people to answer the 901-222-shot hotline.
Where you can find the COVID shot in Shelby County
“We believe there will be improvements in the next few days, and I also want to say the only thing we’re interested in is getting people vaccinated,” McGowen said. “When we collect information, it’s just the basic medical information. We’re not interested in anyone’s status.”
They say the city has given 39,000 vaccine doses in the past week, with health partners administering 5,000 doses.
They also say a new COVID testing site will be held this Saturday at White Chapel AME Church from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1712 Fields Road in southwest Memphis.
