MEMPHIS, Tennessee — City leaders are pushing for more people in Shelby County to get vaccinated as FEMA prepares to leave town next month.
Federal personnel staffing has been at the Pipkin COVID-19 vaccination site since earlier this April.
“The next four weeks are critical," said the city’s chief operating officer Doug McGowen. "We have a unique opportunity in this community. We have department of defense resources here and an additional 21,000 doses.“
McGowen said in a task force briefing Thursday that unless demand for COVID-19 vaccines increases, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not be extending its stay.
“If demand picks up significantly we will obviously reevaluate that," said McGowen. "We have been able to pivot on a relatively short timeline and the entire team is ready to that should that become the case.”
McGowen said city officials wanted FEMA to remain and federal officials wanted to stay.
FEMA is set to leave the area May 17th – unless it chooses to stay an additional two weeks, which McGowen said at this point is unlikely.
“302,000 of you have take advantage of the vaccine we need another couple hundred thousand so that we can be well on our way to achieving our goal of herd immunity.”
The health department said they are attempting to ramp up their outreach campaigns about getting the vaccines reaching out to community members and churches.
“We are working with partners to try and put together a coalition," said David Sweat, the Shelby County Health Department's chief of epidemiology. "In the coming weeks, we hope to have a coalition of the community to give us their feedback and input on how we can reach people better with messages.”
Leaders are now encouraging everyone over 16 to take the vaccine while the personnel and extra doses are available.
“Let’s not let this opportunity go by," advised McGowen. "We have this unprecedented opportunity of federal department of defense, state and local cooperation that provides us this huge capacity to vaccinate people in Shelby County."