As GA nears 500,000 COVID-19 cases, officials hope vaccines end ‘national nightmare’

As Georgia nears 500,000 cumulative coronavirus cases and almost 10,000 deaths, state health officials said there is “light at the end of the tunnel” as health care workers begin to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

A group of nurses at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta — the fifth largest public hospital in the country — were inoculated with the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine Thursday afternoon, along with Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey.

A ‘medical miracle’

Toomey, the medical face of Georgia’s pandemic response, said the vaccine is the “tool” that Georgians will use to overcome the coronavirus. She is one of dozens of political and health leaders across the country receiving public vaccinations to demonstrate confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

Gov. Brian Kemp called the vaccine a “medical miracle” and noted that Georgians would receive the vaccination in phases. The state had previously filed a distribution plan with the CDC that laid out who would receive the vaccine first: front-line health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities will be first; then those most at risk for contracting and dying from the virus, including elderly and those with underlying medical conditions; and finally the general public.

“This vaccine is safe, effective and is now on the way to the people of this great state,” Kemp said.

Vaccine shipped to Georgia

The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were shipped early this week to health departments across the country, arriving in Coastal Georgia on Monday. Navicent Health officials said the hospital expected doses to arrive in Macon this week as well. The Pfizer vaccine will be administered in two doses, taken roughly three weeks apart.

The FDA was expected to give a second vaccine, from Moderna, emergency authorization on Friday.

Norma Poindexter was the first Grady nurse inoculated Thursday. An ICU nurse, Poindexter has worked at the hospital for more than 20 years.

Continue following coronavirus guidelines

Kemp and Toomey urged Georgians to continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines: wear a mask, wash your hands and practice social distancing.

“I know that people are tired and ready to return to normal. I am as well. But we are too close to winning this fight to give up now,” Kemp said. “If we continue to do these simple things for the next couple of months we will get through this together and we will see this long national nightmare come to an end.”