DeKalb residents may soon be able to choose which vaccine they take as they schedule an appointment

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — You might get to pick which vaccine you get if DeKalb’s top doctor gets her wish.

She wants to provide options to residents as an incentive to get inoculated.

“What we’re thinking about doing, based on supply is maybe having a J and J day, a Pfizer day, a Moderna day. I don’t know if that’s going to work out, but that’s the hope,” Dr. Elizabeth Ford, the director of the county’s Board of Health, told Channel 2′s Sophia Choi.

Resident Cheryl Cressman hopes more people getting vaccinated means a full re-opening isn’t too far off.

“I’m ready, I’m ready,” said Cressman, who recently got her first vaccine dose. “I’m ready for my second and I feel such relief.”

But not everyone is getting vaccinated, even when the shot is offered. A weekend Decatur Schools’ vaccination event drew fewer than 150 people.

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Ford said that’s a disappointment.

“Well yeah, we expected to have a larger turnout for them. But hopefully that means they received their vaccine elsewhere,” said Ford.

DeKalb got 11,000 Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccines specifically for school staff and teachers, who are not mandated to get a shot.

The county’s next event is for DeKalb County schools on March 20th. Ford says any leftover Johnson & Johnson shots will go to high risk communities.

Ford said the good news is that DeKalb’s COVID-19 cases are subsiding, with the positivity rate dropping to around 5-6% from a high of around 19%.

Demand at testing sites are also down.

So the county is working on plans to cut testing to half days and re-route workers for the remainder of the day to help at vaccine sites, especially with mass vaccination events planned for residents in the coming weeks.

Doctors warn people not to let down their guard as they get vaccinated Doctors say you can infect others with COVID-19 even in between vaccine doses.

Cox Media Group