So far, District 2 Public Health - which serves 13 North Georgia counties - has vaccinated about 7,000 people against COVID-19. However, the demand for the vaccine continues to outpace the ability to "get needles into arms." To that end, COVID-19 testing will be turned over next week to MAKO Medical, an independent lab that is also serving other counties in Georgia in partnership with the State Department of Public Health.
Dave Palmer, spokesman for District 2 Public Health, said MAKO will expand hours for COVID testing.
"They're going to operate the site that we were operating over at Allen Creek [Soccer Complex] in Gainesville," Palmer said. "Their hours are going to be Monday through Friday, and you know, we had reduced hours that we could test so we could vaccinate."
Palmer said the change will mean more opportunities for testing and for vaccinating.
MAKO Medical will begin testing on Friday, Jan. 22. Appointments can be made online via this link. Palmer said the final day the local health department will operate the test site will be Wednesday, Jan. 20. In addition, District 2 will no longer perform rapid tests for those who are symptomatic. That change includes all 13 county health departments.
Palmer acknowledged the frustration people are feeling as they struggle to make appointments to get the vaccine. He's hoping the transfer of the testing responsibilities will help.
"We're trying our best to get the vaccine out as quickly as we can, but it takes time," Palmer said. "There are a lot of moving parts in this response, and we want people to understand that. Hopefully, our community partners like North Georgia Health System, Diagnostic Clinic, Longstreet Clinic - all those clinics like that - are beginning to get vaccine now [and] that's going to relieve some of the burden."
In addition, Palmer said more medical and clerical staff have been hired to further speed the process. With that, the plan is to hold off-site vaccination clinics where up to 700 people can be vaccinated in one event. Announcements with details on those clinics are expected in the coming days.
