The Berrien County Health Department is seeking to increase COVID-19 vaccinations with the help of what it’s calling Vaccine Champions and by making opportunities to get the shots more convenient. Speaking during a Wednesday update, Berrien County Deputy Health Officer Courtney Davis said while much progress has been made with about 53% of Berrien County vaccinated, more people need to be protected. The people who were motivated have already been covered.
“Berrien County is in really good shape,” Davis said. “We have so many partners who are providing vaccinations. You can get a vaccine pretty much every day of the week in the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. including weekends. We’re really excited about that.”
We’ll be hearing more about the department’s search for Vaccine Champions in the coming days. Meanwhile, Berrien County Health Officer Nicki Britten says some good news is they’re not expecting July 4 to be a super spreader event.
“What we have seen, pretty much since we started the vaccine campaign, holidays like Easter and Memorial Day weekend, we haven’t seen as much of an impact on our cases, and the Fourth of July, almost all of the activities are taking place outdoors, which is another thing that reduces risk of transmission.”
Britten also said the Delta variant has not been seen in significant numbers in Berrien County, although it’s dominant in some places around the country. She noted the county is seeing a percent positivity of less than 3%, and there are currently no COVID patients in the ICU locally. The health department says the key to continuing those positive trends remains vaccinations.
