News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
If you are in the group eligible for COVID vaccinations, you could sign up today and get vaccinated today.
That is according to Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter. 1-C vaccinations continue at the Putnam County Fairgrounds.
The number of those 65-70 who have received the vaccine has been lower than expected.
“Only about 54 percent, so we’re concerned that there’s a group of people out there that either don’t know that they can go ahead and sign up that we haven’t reached yet,” Porter said. “Maybe they don’t realize that the age group has dropped to 65 and above. They may not realize we’re at 1c now.”
Porter said roughly 90 percent of 80-84 residents were vaccinated.
Porter said more than 15 thousand of Putnam County’s 80 thousand residents have been vaccinated. The 1C Category includes common medical conditions including high blood pressure and asthma.
“In a county our size there’s thousands out of the 80,000 population that are going to fall into the age category,” Porter said. “We know there’s a lot of people that have diabetes and liver and kidney disease, cancer. All the many illnesses, hypertension, high blood pressure is a big thing that a lot of people have. But there’s no way to know exactly how many there are.”
Porter said the process has been streamlined since the vaccination started. He said residents who need vaccines should know the system is improving.
“More vaccine, now the workers at the health department are using iPads to run everybody through,” Porter said. “There’s not all that paper that they had to deal with. So yes the process is much better now, easier, faster.”
Porter said most people can get through the process in a matter of minutes. Putnam residents can either visit putnamcountytn.gov/vaccine or call 646-INFO.
