Orleans gets big increase in vaccine allotments this week

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 March 2021 at 8:17 pm

Orleans County will receive over 1,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine this week, which is significantly more than the county typically gets. Last week Orleans was able to administer 400 doses.

The county is getting 500 doses as part of its regular allotment with 300 to be administered by the Orleans County Health Department, 100 by the Tops pharmacy and 100 at Medina Memorial Hospital.

The county also will have an additional 585 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and will working with its partnering healthcare providers to administer those doses, Paul Pettit, the county’s public health director, advised local officials during a conference call this evening.

“That’s great news,” he said about the 585 doses on top of the weekly allotment.

In addition, the Health Department will be giving 200 shots of the second dose of the vaccine during its vaccine clinic Thursday at the Ridgeway Fire Hall.

Orleans also is expecting to hear confirmation soon from the state that the county will be teaming with Genesee and Wyoming health officials for a tri-county mass vaccination clinic at GCC in Batavia. Pettit said that clinic is in the planning stages.

“We are very hopeful this mass vaccination site will come to fruition and provide a much needed boost to Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties,” he said.

In Orleans, about 10 percent of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. That is down from a 15 percent rate across the state and in the Finger Lakes Region.