The Ingham County health department says it’s been able to keep up with their schedule of COVID-19 vaccinations. That’s after several health departments in the state experienced weather-related delays in vaccine shipments last week.
Health Officer Linda Vail says her department tries not to count on using doses to fulfill vaccination appointments in the same week they arrive. She says having doses on hand, and knowing that they can plan on using them the following week, is advantageous. “Using them tomorrow if they come in today is not always the best strategy," Vail says. "If they don’t come in, then you end up canceling appointments.”
Meanwhile, the tally of COVID-19 deaths in America surpassed 500,000 this week, a number Vail says she never would have imagined. Vail describes the toll as profound and devastating, adding “To have lost somebody to COVID, and to be living around people who want to deny that COVID is a problem, that COVID is anything more than the flu, who want to try to say things like ‘they’re just making up these deaths, they’re making this up,’ I just can’t even imagine.”
There have been 271 COVID-related deaths in Ingham County, and there have been more than 15,000 confirmed cases. Sixty-one people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 at McLaren Greater Lansing and Sparrow hospitals.