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Ottawa County can't meet vaccine demand as state moves to next distribution phase

The Department of Public Health answered 1,000 phone calls in one day regarding the vaccine

OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Its been a busy week at the Ottawa County Department of Public Health.

"Our staff answered 1,000 calls yesterday," says county administrator Al Vanderberg.

1,000 calls in one day about how to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The problem is, the county doesn't have enough of it to even schedule appointments.

"Its kind of heartening that people are so eager to get it," says Vanderberg. "But it puts us in a huge bind when we can't deliver."

With the state announcing its plans to move to phase 1B of vaccine distribution, a larger group of people are now eligible to receive it. But Vanderberg says they still haven't gotten enough of the vaccine from the state to finish phase 1A.

"The state's method of distribution right now is to look at how many did you hand out last week and are there any left," says Vanderberg. "And then we'll base this week based on that. The problem is how do you ever get ahead of it and really plan for kind of a mass event?"

Ottawa County staff has reached out to the state for help, asking when more of the vaccine will arrive. Vanderberg wants to see a per capita distribution plan so each county receives exactly the number of vaccinations it needs, as well as lighten the load on employees.

"If the staff is answering thousands of phone calls, they're not doing contact tracing and all the other things that the health department's overwhelmed with," he says.

Vanderberg asks for patience from Ottawa residents and says they will be notified as soon as more vaccine is available. The county plans to finish phase 1A entirely before moving to the next phase.

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