News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Some 650 Cookeville Regional staff have been vaccinated this week.
That according to Public Relations Director Melahn Finley. The hospital vaccinated its first employee Saturday.
It is the first of two doses for each front-line medical worker. The second dose will come in 21 days. CEO Paul Korth said last week the hospital expected enough doses to vaccinate about one-third of its team.
Meantime, more than 32 thousand Tennesseans have been vaccinated across all 95 counties. State Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said Wednesday proved to be a very good day for vaccinations and she looks forward to seeing the numbers.
Piercey said the vaccinations will continue Thursday and Saturday as local health departments will continue to vaccinate emergency responders.
“It is a very difficult thing to ask employees come in over this holiday and to do this,” Piercey said. “But we are all 100 percent convinced it is the right thing to do. It is the single most effective thing that we can be working on right now in order to get our society back to a sense of normalcy.”
Piercey said the state will release an updated vaccination plan by Monday.
Cookeville Regional reported 69 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 Wednesday with 10 more tests pending.
