Georgia Medical Center suspended from vaccination program after school district staff were vaccinated

Georgia Medical Center suspended from vaccination program after school district staff were vaccinated

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The Georgia Department of Public Health was notified Tuesday that the Elberton Medical Center has vaccinated Elbert County School District staff members who were outside the Phase 1A + category of people eligible for the vaccine. After an investigation, the DPH confirmed the information and suspended the medical center, according to a release from the department.

CNN reached out to Elberton Medical Center for comment.

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Jon Jarvis, principal of Elbert County School, said many of the district’s more than 500 employees are eager to receive the vaccine.

“It’s hard to wear a mask if you want to teach students sounds,” Superviste Jarvis told CNN subsidiary WXIA. “The vaccination for teachers, bus drivers, school nutrition workers … should, in my opinion, be considered in the first group.”
Georgia currently administers vaccines to people in the 1A + group, which includes health care workers, long-term care staff and residents, adults over the age of 65 and their caregivers as well as first responders, according to the Georgia DPH.

During the suspension, the rural medical center will not be eligible for Covid-19 vaccine shipments, although it will be allowed to use the remaining vaccine supply for dual-dose administration to patients, “as applicable,” DPH said.

“It is critical that DPH maintains the highest standards of vaccine liability to ensure that all federal and state requirements are met by all parties, and that vaccine is administered efficiently and equitably,” the DPH said.

As variants threaten another boom and schools hope to send students back into the classroom full-time, officials and residents have called for more vaccine doses. But health experts across the country say the spread of the vaccine is slow and that it will take months until all Americans can be vaccinated.

CNN’s Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.

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