Monmouth County officials and pharmacists say they are seeing a renewed
interest in people wanting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Pharmacists at the Belmar Town Pharmacy say the delta variant and an
increase in case numbers is leading to more people wanting tests and
vaccines.
According to the
Monmouth County commissioners, more than half of the towns in the county have at least 70% of
their population vaccinated. All towns are
at least 50% vaccinated.
Despite an increase in cases, officials say there have been
no significant increases in hospitalizations or deaths in Monmouth
County.
Pharmacist Sam Shah, of the Belmar Town Pharmacy, says things have
changed since vaccination interest basically dropped to near-nothing
in May and June.
“I would say last three or four weeks it went up, I would say,
40% to 50% for us…so that was pretty good,” Shah says. “A lot more people are
calling for the vaccines now, so we have more and more appointments scheduled
already.”
Local
pharmacies are asking those interested in getting vaccinated to call ahead and
schedule an appointment first.