'Please Be Patient': Cobb COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Coming

COBB COUNTY, GA — Cobb & Douglas Public Health depleted its doses of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday — the first day Georgians age 65 and older could sign up for a vaccine appointment — with 700 vaccinations at the Jim R. Miller Park vaccination site, despite the CDPH website crashing and causing confusion among Cobb County residents trying to make an appointment.

Dr. Janet Memark, CDPH's district health director, told the Cobb County Board of Commissioners at Tuesday's board meeting that vaccine appointments will be rolled out as the department receives additional vaccines. Residents can check back on the website's COVID-19 vaccine section each Friday after 5 p.m. for appointments for the coming Monday through Saturday, according to the CDPH website. Appointments are required to receive a vaccine.

"I know this is a really hard time and there just aren't enough vaccines. We ask everybody to please be patient as we try to roll out these appointments and vaccines," Memark said. "We are going through our inventory to see how many we have and make sure we have vaccines on hand before we release appointments to everybody."

The CDPH's website and the separate website it created for scheduling vaccine appointments crashed early Monday morning due to a massive influx of users.

Memark said the CDPH's website had reached 210 percent capacity on Jan. 10, and its website was taken down "to make sure that nothing malicious was happening." The department's website shared a server with the Georgia Department of Public Health, but was put on its own server, which is what took so much time to restore the site.

The department's vaccine scheduling website still says servers are busy as of Wednesday afternoon. That page relies on state-run servers, which also experienced issues on Monday, Memark said.

"[The state is] working to increase the bandwidth for us," she said.

CDPH had vaccinated about 700 people at Jim R. Miller Park on Monday, which was turned into a drive-thru mass vaccination site last week, with 2,500 total people vaccinated by CDPH as of Tuesday morning. The department's goal is to vaccinate 1,000 people per day at Jim R. Miller Park, although Memark did not say when enough vaccines would be available to achieve this goal.

Memark said the department also plans to create outreach teams staffed by nurses who will vaccinate people in high-exposure and high-risk communities, such as schools and low-income areas. A mobile unit is coming soon as well to vaccinate people in harder-to-reach areas in the community who may not have access to a car for a drive-thru vaccination site.

CDPH is also working with Wellstar Health System to reach communities of color and other more vulnerable communities "that really need to have more access to vaccines and testing," Memark said.

Georgians who wish to be vaccinated can make an appointment at any vaccination site in the state, Memark said — Cobb residents do not have to wait for openings at Jim R. Miller Park.

"You can go actually go anywhere in the state of Georgia, we can’t stop you from signing up with any county," Memark said. "We’re trying to have as much availability as we can for our citizens, but you can go to other places. But you do need an appointment, it’s absolutely necessary."

There are more than 1,500 vaccine providers in Georgia, according to Georgia Department of Public Health data, and Memark said residents can search for other vaccination locations on the state's website. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, and residents can also go to a different vaccination location for their second dose.

"Your providers may be offering vaccine, so if you received it in one location and we are able to get an appointment in another location, you can do that," Memark said. "Please keep watching that [state] vaccine locator, because you will see more and more folks being added to the list that will provide access to our community for vaccines."

Memark closed her remarks with a plea for Cobb residents and the rest of Georgia to not go out unless it is absolutely necessary and avoid gathering in large groups, saying the state is in a "very, very dire situation."

"We are seeing our cases from the holidays and from people gathering, and there’s just no end in sight right now. Even though we have vaccines, it’s just not enough for us to reach herd immunity anytime soon," Memark said. "So please, we implore people to try your best to shelter as best you can, and not go out unnecessarily in gatherings with people that are outside of your immediate family. This is a very important time where we cannot continue taxing our healthcare systems, because they will eventually break if they don’t get some help soon."