One year after COVID reaches Franklin County the vaccine is available to all

On April 5, 2020, Franklin County reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Exactly one year to the day later, all adult residents are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Who would have thought we'd ever be this far," said Ashley Roberts, director of Franklin County Public Health. "It's crazy to think that it's been a whole year."

Franklin County Public Health has been diligently working to vaccinate the county population and hopes that the new expansion of eligibility will encourage more people to schedule appointments.

The county is preparing for a big push in vaccinations as they have been informed that they will receive 700 doses of Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine this week, in addition to their regular allotment of 200 doses of Moderna.

The J&J vaccine was originally intended to go to the area's manufacturing population, due to the ease of managing the one-dose shot, however Public Health has already largely covered that demographic so the state has told them to distribute it to whoever is interested.

Some people may be fine with the two-shot Moderna vaccine while others may just want the convenience of dealing with the one-shot J&J vaccine.

"You can kind of choose," said Roberts.

Of the shipment of J&J, the county will keep 400 doses and give the other 300 doses to Franklin General Hospital for distribution. Though the county doesn't expect to receive that amount of vaccine on a regular basis, it should be sufficient to meet demand for the immediate future.

In Franklin County, approximately 5,310 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to county residents, with 1,940 residents completing their two-dose vaccination and 98 receiving their single-dose vaccination.

As of Monday, April 5, the state is reporting a total of 1,119 individuals testing positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, an increase of eight from the previous week.

No new deaths have been reported, keeping the county's fatal case count at 21.

In the county, 5,229 individuals have been tested at some point during the pandemic, with a total of 18,627 tests being performed on Franklin County residents. In the last 14 days, 3.9 % of all tests have been positive for the virus.