Health officials provide update on vaccine rollout

(TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.) Munson Healthcare's Chief Medical officer Christine Nefcy, along with health officers and medical directors from Northern Michigan health departments provided an update on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the region during a Tuesday news conference. Diane Michalek, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Munson Healthcare said as of Monday January 11, 5,508 Munson Healthcare employees have been vaccinated. That's 61% of Munson's eligible employees. On Tuesday Munson Healthcare is giving the first doses of the vaccine to patients who are 90 and older. Munson's goal is to vaccine 2,000 eligible patients this week and 2,000 eligible patients next week. Health officials say they are working to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible, but speed depends on how many doses they are given. Wendy Hirschenberger, a health officer for the Grand Traverse County Health Department says the department is in Phase 1A of vaccine distribution and preparing to move into Phase 1B. The Grand Traverse County Health Department is hoping to vaccinate 700 people this week. Health officials say they are working to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible, but speed depends on how many doses they are given. "We have to schedule week by week because we only know what allocation we're getting at the end of the week for the following week," said Lisa Peacock, a Health Officer for the Benzie/Leelanau Health Department and the Health Department of Northwest Michigan. Peacock says they're also starting to schedule some first responders that fall into the Phase 1B category if they're not in the Phase 1A category. District Health Department number 10 which serves Crawford, Kalkaska, Lake, Manistee, Mason, Mecosta, Missaukee, Newaygo, Oceana, and Wexford Counties is hosting vaccine clinics everyday is in each county. 1,400 people were vaccinated on Friday in District Health Department number 10. The healthcare officials say they're happy that people are eager to get vaccinated, but that it could be a while before everyone has a chance to get their shot. "Honestly I think that our health departments and our healthcare organizations are ready to adapt to the supply of vaccine, a lot of how quickly we'll be able to get vaccine out depends on how much vaccine we get so it's really hard to make a prediction with any kind of accuracy without knowing that, all I can say is as soon as we get it we'll put it into arms as best we can," said Christine Nefcy, Munson Healthcare's Chief Medical Officer. "But I would say March is probably a little bit too optimistic even for me."