GEORGIA —
The Georgia Coastal Health District is shifting testing locations to better meet vaccination needs in Southeast Georgia.
By the end of this week, both of Camden County’s Public Health testing sites will close and shift to just Glynn and Chatham counties.
Right now, there’s a clinic in St. Mary’s and Woodbine but, after Tuesday, public testing will only be available at 2747 Fourth Street in Glynn County, which is the area’s health department.
Coastal Health District reports 104 tests were completed on Tuesday, January 19, which is currently the only day it is open for testing.
Closing the site to testing will allow staff to focus on vaccine administration three days a week, versus just two days a week as it had before.
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“We do have concern about that and some people in the smaller counties that might not be able to drive to one of the larger places,” Dr. Lawton Davis, the director of the Coastal Health District, said. “It’s more important to focus on vaccinating as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”
Dr. Davis added that there are other testing options in Camden County through the private sector and he said his department will continue to monitor.
So far, Georgia has administered 674,967 vaccines as of Monday.
Coastal Health has administered just a small portion of that number with 3,700 vaccines in Glynn and 800 vaccines in Camden.
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Dr. Davis said closing the sites to testing and shifting to vaccinating will allow them to nearly double distribution across the Coastal Health District’s counties, which include Bryan, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long and McIntosh.
COVID-19 testing will also be available in Chatham County.
Dr. Davis said the same problems of supply and demand felt in Florida are also occurring in Georgia.
Governor Brian Kemp held a press conference Tuesday where he announced the state is only being allotted about 120,000 doses a week from the federal government.
Action News Jax also asked the Public Health Southeast District about vaccine distribution. In a statement, a representative said, “those numbers are constantly evolving as vaccines are administered at our four mass vaccination sites and health department locations across our sixteen-county health district.”
The department did refer Action News Jax’s Robert Grant to the Georgia Department of Public Health’s website. It’s latest report shows Brantly received 500 doses, Pierce got 100, Ware got 300, and Charlton received 200.
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