Covid vaccination rate remains low

Than 18- thousand covid-19 vaccination shots have been administered in buchanan county... and while that may sound like a lot -- the county is well behind other areas in getting their residents vaccinated kq2's madeline mcclain spoke to our local health department to find out why.

<<the county's dismal covid-19 vaccination rate bradley, st.

Joseph health department: "we are at 13 percent."trailing far behind the national and state average of percent of the population that has received at least one vaccine shot.a major concern as city council split 5 to 4 on cutting short a st.

Joseph-wide mask mandate.

Brenda blessing, st.

Joseph city council: "i wish more people were taking their shots."mayor bill mcmurray: "we're at about 13 percent."

Russell moore, st.

Joseph city council: "it's not even at 20 percent yet."bryan myers, st.

Joseph city council: "probably should be a little higher before doing away with this mandate."

The st.

Joseph health department says there's a number vaccination rate could be low.debra bradley, st.

Joseph health department: "part of it has to do with vaccine availability because it kind of started out slow rolling into our community."

She says that although there has been an increase in vaccine supplies locally -- there's no residency requirement keeping it here.

Debra bradley, st.

Joseph health department: even in our own clinics that we did, even about 50 percent of the people that we vaccinated lived in other counties.on its own not a bad thing.debra bradley, st.

Joseph health department: they work here or visit here or shop here or they come here for a doctor or whatever the reason they are still a part of our community.but it makes it difficult to determine from the data whether it's a supply issue including ones specific to communities of color.debra bradley, st.

Joseph health department: "of the people who have been vaccinated about 50 percent of them are caucasion.

There were about 40 percent that didn't identify a race."

Or vaccine hesitancy.if it's hesitancy -- she hopes the results will convince them to get it.debra bradley, st.

Joseph health department: "there have been enough people, i believe there have been enough people vaccinated in the united states and the world to show that this vaccine is safe.if it's supplies -- the state is making changes to its allocation formulas that may boost buchanan county's priority.debra bradley, st.

Joseph health department: originally vaccine allocation was based on your total population.

Now they are looking at your population that is eligible and not vaccinated.with buchanan county ranking in the bottom 15 out of 115 counties in the state joseph health department: "it is estimated that we have a large number of people eligible and not yet vaccinated."it may help get us to the top of the supply list.

Reporting, madeline mcclain kq2 news.

A spokesperson for mosaic life care says the waitlist for their community clinic is minimal -- and all phases can now register.