Limited COVID-19 vaccines force Cobb County to reschedule appointments

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — There’s mounting frustration at one of metro Atlanta’s largest vaccination sites.

Seniors who were able to book an appointment at Jim R. Miller Park in Cobb County got rescheduled.

“I got two emails, and it says, ‘Due to lack of resources, we’ll try to reschedule you within the next three weeks,’” said one patient who asked us not to identify her. “I just think that’s awful. Why would they schedule appointments when they didn’t have the resources?”

A Cobb and Douglas Public Health spokeswoman told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Chris Jose, “It was due to scheduling and limited vaccines, and load balancing first and second doses.”

Jose asked how many appointments had to be rescheduled Jan. 25-30.

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“I don’t have exact numbers, but the patients are being notified of this by email and are being told that they will be notified of the new appointment details within the next few days,” said CDPH spokeswoman Valerie Crow. “We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and can assure everyone that the new appointments will occur within the next three weeks.”

The health department stated the goal is to vaccinate 1,000 people a day at Jim R. Miller Park. CDPH’s Douglas County site is hoping to conduct at least 500 vaccinations a day.

“It’s very, very troublesome. It’s not a good system. We definitely need to do something about this,” said one patient’s daughter, Lisa Lindsey.

CDPH opens its appointment portal on Fridays at 5 p.m. Jose asked about a new server that’s supposed to alleviate the bottleneck online.

“It is our understanding that the state appointment system will be ready for all districts to use in the next few weeks, but for now, we are using what we can to try and get appointments scheduled,” said Crow.

UGA researchers looking into how long vaccines will last against COVID-19 and its variants So far, the variant showing up the most in the U.S., including here in Georgia, is the variant initially found in the United Kingdom.

Cox Media Group