Dr. Morris; People Are "Very Willing" to Get the Covid-19 Vaccine

CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON today for a local update on Covid-19. He says they have less than 20 Covid-19 positive cases in the hospital and a third of those are in their critical care or ICU. He says is takes a long time for those who become very sick to recover if they are able to do so. Morris says the numbers continue to trend downward with Covid-19 cases in their CentraCare facilities and that's a good thing. Listen below.

The Covid-19 vaccine rollout continues with the target groups continuing to be health care workers, first responders, long term care facility residents, 65+ people, educators, the homeless and those living in group homes. Morris says they do have teams that seek out vulnerable people to vaccinate. He says they are still contacting people to schedule vaccines but aren't asking people to contact CentraCare wanting to schedule a vaccine. Morris says it will take them awhile to get through this target group but he's optimistic that a Covid-19 vaccine will be available to whoever wants it by late spring or early summer. Morris says those who have been offered the Covid-19 vaccine are largely "very willing" to get the vaccine. Morris says to achieve herd immunity we need to get to 70-90 percent vaccinated. The hope is to get there at some point this summer.

Dr. Morris says those who had the virus during our local surge in November/December are seeing their immunity likely end. He says doctors are still learning more about immunities and length of immunities for those who have had the virus. Morris says the length of immunity for those who have recovered is typically 90 days.

Morris addressed the supply of vaccine this week and calls it "low". The hope is to deliver two to four thousand vaccines next week which is lower than the amount that they would like to.