Pharmacies hope to receive doses in coming weeks
TRI-CITY AREA — On Friday the St. Clair County Health Department’s new COVID-19 vaccine pre-registration system went live.
It allows anyone living or working in St. Clair County interested in receiving the vaccine to add their name to the county’s waiting list.
“We hope the community finds this new pre-registration system helpful. We appreciate everyone’s patience with the process. As more vaccine becomes available, vaccination opportunities will as well, including even more options for our residents,” said Dr. Annette Mercatante, the county’s Medical Health Officer.
In Lapeer County, the health department continues to accept a limited number of appointments on Monday mornings through their website.
“At this time we are not aware of any pharmacies in the county that have supplies to provide public vaccination, although many have applied will be doing so. We are hopeful that the Centers for Disease Control will provide vaccine to the pharmacies within the next couple weeks,” said Kathy Haskins, Lapeer County Health Department Director.
She did note that some health care systems are providing vaccine to their eligible population. McLaren is one of them.
The hospital system is allowing existing patients 65 and older to sign up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Registration forms can be found online at www.mclaren.org/main/coronavirus-vaccine.
St. Clair County said they’ll schedule appointments based on an individual’s priority group status and the date and time they registered. Individuals can choose to receive appointment notifications via an automated phone call, text or email.
Officials encourage those needing pre-registration help, to ask a family member, friend or neighbor for assistance. Seniors 65 and older needing assistance with the online pre-registration process, can receive assistance by contacting the Council on Aging at 1-800-297-0099 or by calling 211.
St. Clair County seniors can get assistance registering for a vaccine through the Council on Aging.
Statistics improve
Weekly COVID-19 case reports continue to show that the late fall surge of cases continues to decline.
In St. Clair County, 106 new cases were reported from Feb. 2-8 as compared to 162 the week prior. The county’s number of active cases also continued to fall off, dropping from 2,083 as of Feb. 1 to 1,870 as of Feb. 8.
There were nine additional deaths in the past week, bringing the county’s total to 231.
In Lapeer County, the number of new cases ticked up slightly but there was just one virus-related death. Eighty-seven new cases were recorded between Feb. 2-8 as compared to 56 reported the week prior.
With one additional death, the county’s total now stands at 114.
