Habersham County’s mass vaccination site setup is underway, with officials from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security (GEMA/HS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Georgia National Guard and healthcare workers arriving on-site Feb. 19 to get ready for their opening this Monday.
“There are a lot of moving pieces; there are a lot of people here in your county that are not from this part of Georgia. But as I have been meeting people today I have already found that there are a lot of people [here] from all over the country with ties to Northeast Georgia and Habersham County,” GEMA’s Area 1 Field Coordinator Don Strength says. “They’ll be with us for a while, we don’t know exactly how long this is going to go, but it’s going to continue until the job is done.”
The site will have the ability to vaccinate 1,100 people per day, and Strength says the site is set up to vaccinate up to eight people at a time. From the time it takes for an individual to enter the site, they should be vaccinated and waiting in observation within six minutes. Patients with known allergies must wait 30 minutes after receiving their vaccination; all others must wait 15 minutes. Staff will instruct recipients on when and how to schedule their second dose.
Those wanting to get vaccinated must schedule an appointment with MyVaccineGeorgia, and they must arrive at their scheduled time. The site expects to get individuals in and out of the facility as quickly as possible and keep the roads clear.
Habersham County is one of four mass vaccination sites in the state, and officials expect to have individuals come from all over Georgia to get vaccinated. Strength says local business owners can expect an uptick in customers as people from all over the state come to Habersham to receive their vaccination. They don’t expect major traffic blocking Toccoa Highway, however.
“Our intent is for nobody to have to wait out on the highway here. Ever,” Strength says. Strength says that if they do run into a problem and traffic backs up, they will bring the check-in tent further into the fairground to allow traffic in off of the highway. “We will do whatever we possibly can do at this facility to ensure that Toccoa Highway is not backed up.”
The site will also have a separate traffic route at the fairgrounds to keep the Habersham Animal Shelter accessible. State law enforcement will be available to direct traffic on Toccoa Highway.
County officials like Sheriff Joey Terell, county commissioners Bruce Palmer and Tim Stamey, Habersham Emergency Services director Chad Black, county manager Phil Sutton, State Rep. Victor Anderson (R-Alto) and State Sen. Bo Hatchett (R-Cornelia) attended the briefing and tour GEMA held at the site.
“We’re here to take care of the citizens of Georgia,” Strength said. “We have a great group here, and I think this is going to work very well. […] When we get through, the self-satisfaction that we’re all going to leave here with knowing that we are helping fight– without question– the biggest issue the world has faced in our lifetimes, that’s pretty gratifying. We’re going to make this happen.”
