Washington County residents have received 12,800 vaccines

Vaccination numbers continue rising in Washington County.

Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski presented a weekly report to the Washington County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning.

Pettit-Majewski reported that, to date, 12,807 vaccine doses have been administered to Washington County residents, while 5,328 residents have been fully immunized.

Last week, 11,333 vaccine doses had been administered to county residents, and 4,486 had been fully vaccinated.

Those numbers include residents who received vaccinations in other counties.

Washington County Public Health as an open vaccination clinic planned for Wednesday at the Public Health office, 110 N. Iowa Ave., Washington.

As of midday Tuesday, appointments were still available at washph.com/Appointments.

Positivity rates continue to be a source of concern, though.

“We continue to see cases and hospitalizations going up,” Pettit-Majewski said. “The B.1.1.7 variant (commonly known at the U.K. variant) is circulating. It’s more contagious and has worse outcomes.”

The positivity rate in Washington County dropped from 4.9 percent a week ago to 4 percent this week.

In Jefferson County, it dropped from 1.8 percent to 1 percent.

However, in Johnson County, the rate rose from 5.4 percent to 5.8 percent.

“We are seeing the B.1.1.7 in our area,” Pettit-Majewski said. “A majority of those are not associated with out-of-town travel, so that shows it’s circulating statewide.”

Pettit-Majewski cleared up an error showing on the state’s COVID dashboard.

“If you look at the state site, it says we have an outbreak at Parkview Manor (in Wellman),” she said. “We do not. It was a coding error, and they’re getting that fixed.”