City of Vidalia, EGHC Team Up to Provide COVID-19 Vaccinations

Although COVID-19 vaccinations are being distributed around the country for citizens who are 65 years and older, the availability and accessibility continues to be inconsistent. This has been the case in Vidalia and Toombs County.

But when opportunity–in continued from page

the form of a supply of vaccinations — knocked on Vidalia’s door, local leadership sprung into action. Vidalia city leaders joined forces with East Georgia Healthcare Center (EGHC), which has multiple clinics in South Georgia, including Vidalia, to sponsor a remote clinic location for older citizens to receive their first shot and to return for the second shot next month.

Vidalia City Manager Nick Overstreet said he was pleased to be contacted by EGHC. “A lot of people have had trouble getting the vaccination. I got a phone call from East Georgia Healthcare, who had 250 vaccinations available. They were looking for a place to hold a clinic in Vidalia.” The City of Vidalia partnered with EGHC to hold the clinic at the Vidalia Community Center and information was sent out to various community organizations notifying them of the vaccine availability. The first shots were administered Thursday, February 11, and the second round will be administered Thursday, March 11, also at the Community Center. Health protocol mandates that in order to obtain maximum effect, patients must receive two doses of the vaccine administered approximately one month apart.

Overstreet commented, “I think this is a good private partnership for us. It doesn’t cost us anything, other than hosting the event. They will have social distancing measures in place, registration was done online prior to the event, and there are no walk-ins. This is a good way to help our community.”

A fter spending time observing the administration of the first round of vaccinations, Overstreet noted, “We really appreciate the team at East Georgia Healthcare for coming to Vidalia and providing an opportunity for our residents to get vaccinated. The EGHC team was a pleasure to work with and their process of getting residents vaccinated was a tremendous success. We are grateful that they chose to come to Vidalia and offer a vaccination clinic. We look forward to working with them in the future.” Mayor Doug Roper observed the vaccination process with Overstreet at the Community Center and thought it was handled excellently. “The EGHC staff was extremely pleased. They indicated to me that of all the sites they have been to, ours was the most organized and we had done the best job of communicating to the public about the opportunity for them to receive their vaccination. They will be back on March 11 to provide everyone they saw today with their second shot, but they further communicated to Nick (Overstreet) that they wanted to come back again and establish a second round of first and second vaccinations.”

Roper emphasized, “We assured them of our commitment to help them in any way possible to further distribute the vaccine to our community.”