Officials urge citizens to take advantage of local availability of COVID vaccine

State officials are urging Georgians to take advantage of an expansion of COVID-19 vaccine availability. Clinch Countians 16 and older have several local options on how to receive the vaccine.

The state recently expanded its availability of the vaccine to include all state residents age 16 and older. Here are some of the options for Clinch Countians to received the vaccine:

• Call Clinch Memorial Hospital at 912-487-5211 to set up a vaccine appointment.

• Call the Clinch County Health Department at 1-855-473-4374 to set up a vaccine appointment.

• Call 1-844-276-3952 to set a vaccine appointment at the mass vaccine site at the Waycross Mall.

• Call Lakeland Drugs at 229-482-3677 to set up an appointment to receive a vaccine.

• Go online to myvaccinegeorgia.com to find out more options on how to get a vaccine.

Elected and health officials are urging Georgia citizens to get the vaccine so that the state can get back to a sense of normalcy. 

“I just want to encourage everybody to get the vaccine,” Governor Brian Kemp said recently. “We’re seeing this across the country, but especially in the South, we’re seeing vaccine hesitancy. There should not be hesitancy. This is a medical miracle.”

Over 855,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Monday afternoon, with the virus killing over 16,000 Georgians.

For Clinch County, there have been 718 reported COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, according to the state Department of Public Helath website, and 25 confirmed deaths of county residents in connection with the coronavirus. But in the past two weeks, the DPH is reporting no new cases of the virus in Clinch County, and Clinch Memorial Hospital has tested just two positive cases in the past two weeks.