One of Middle Georgia’s hospital systems is now vaccinating people for COVID-19

Macon, GA – According to the statement, Navicent Health is the first health system in the region to provide mass vaccinations to first responders, healthcare workers, and people who are at least 65 years old.

People who fall under the Georgia’s Department of Public Health’s Phase 1A+ will be vaccinated, starting January 18.

Dr. Patrice Walker, Navicent’s Chief Medical Officer, said:

“The COVID-19 vaccine is our biggest tool to contain the pandemic. We’ve always been wearing masks, and performing social distancing and hand hygiene, but outside of that everything else that we have is supportive. The main thing that we can do is try to prevent the infection from happening to begin with.”

Dr. Patrice also mentioned that getting a COVID-19 vaccine can help protect people, as it creates an antibody response in the body without people getting sick from the virus.

If enough people get vaccinated, a large part of the population will be immune to COVID-19, which is called social immunity. According to the experts, more than 70 percent of the population will have to be vaccinated to reach social immunity.