Jill Biden, Sen. Raphael Warnock visit Savannah to promote COVID-19 vaccinations

SAVANNAH — Residents in Savannah got a visit from First Lady Jill Biden Thursday afternoon as part of the President’s push to get Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Biden and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, along with Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, went to a vaccination site set up at Alfred Ely Beach High School. While at the school they spoke about the ease of getting vaccinated to help mobilize grassroots vaccine education and outreach to residents.

“I’m here to ask you, to plead with you, to please get vaccinated,” the First Lady said.

The latest information from the Georgia Department of Public Health dashboard shows roughly 43% of all Georgian’s have gotten at least one vaccination shot and 39% are fully vaccinated. Georgia ranks in the bottom 10 states with those numbers.

Those numbers are well below President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of Americans vaccinated by the Fourth of July.

There are fears that the Delta variant will run rampant among the unvaccinated. Cases in Georgia remain low, but have plateaued since May, causing concern for a new spike.

“The risk of COVID is still out there. Even one hospitalization, one life lost is too many,” the First Lady said.

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The Republican National Committee released a statement Thursday morning ahead of the visit, criticizing the Democrats agenda.

“Members of the Biden Administration can visit Georgia all they want, but they have repeatedly failed Georgians.” RNC Spokesperson Savannah Viar said. “Between their inability to meet their own vaccination deadline, doing nothing to curb rising gas prices, or spreading lies about Georgia’s new Election Integrity law, Democrats like Biden and Warnock are not delivering for the Peach State.”

The First Lady brushed off that criticism.

“We can stop this virus together, but only if we all do our part,” she said.

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