News Photo by Crystal Nelson Devin Spivey, community health director and epidemiologist with District Health Department Nos. 2 and 4, pictured right, tells the District 4 Health Board on Tuesday about the progress the Health Department has made from its mass vaccine clinics.

ALPENA — Local public health officials on Tuesday were optimistic about the progress their vaccination clinics are making in Northeast Michigan.

Josh Meyerson, medical director with District Health Department No. 4, told the health board nearly 15,000 doses of vaccine have been administered to the public so far, which he said is “a real good start.”

Health Department employees have been administering vaccines to eligible residents of Alpena, Montmorency, Presque Isle and Cheboygan counties since mid-December.

“We have certainly a long way to go to get our community immunity going but I think we can see the light there and that’s good news,” he said. “I think that certainly has a lot of people very optimistic.”

Devin Spivey, community health director and epidemiologist with District Health Department Nos. 2 and 4, said DHD No. 4 administered 191 doses of vaccine from Dec. 18 and Dec. 31,administered 4,360 doses in January, and 7,055 doses in February through its vaccine clinics.

Spivey said as of Tuesday, the Health Department had administered 3,174 doses of vaccine and are on track to administer over 8,000 doses of vaccine this month.

“As you can see, we’ve been increasing our capacity as we’ve been getting more doses of vaccine,” she said. “It’s obviously become more available than it was in December, and so we’ve expanded our footprint and our capacity to increase those — those doses go into other peoples arms.”

Meyerson said the prioritization groups are rapidly expanding and said the challenge for the Health Department moving forward and will be increasing the number of access points and how to make it simpler for people to get vaccinated.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced last Friday that any Michigander 16 and older with a qualifying medical condition could receive a vaccine starting on March 22 and starting April 4, every Michigander 16 and older will be eligible for the vaccine.

Additionally, Meyerson said health department employees will also have to find different ways to provide the vaccine to the public because mass vaccination clinics don’t work for everyone.

“I’m really excited about the Johnson and Johnson, the Janssen vaccine because it is a one dose series I think that offers a lot of advantages, especially for people who, you know maybe are a little more homebound or isolated,” he said.

Deputy Health Officer Judy Greer said the biggest challenge for employees currently scheduling appointments is that people who have pre-registered for the vaccine clinics are not answering their phones or returning the health department’s calls.

Greer said as of last Thursday, there were 2,336 people remaining on the Health Department’s pre-registration list and that every person on that list has been contacted.

“We have contacted every single person on that list, and have left messages, our problem is people are not answering their phones,” she said.

Greer said they are also calling people who have gotten their vaccine elsewhere or who are vaccine shopping and will cancel their appointment with the Health Department so they can get their vaccine from a different manufacturer or pharmacy.

Administrative Health Officer Denise Bryan asked the health board to approve new software that will allow people to schedule their own appointments online. Bryan said she expects to see computer literacy increase as the vaccine priority groups expand to include younger age groups.

The health board voted unanimously to authorize Bryan to spend up to $50,000 on that scheduling software. Bryan said she will be using some of the Health Department’s COVID-19 funding to pay for the software.