Butler County working to vaccinate manufacturing employees

With all adults now able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Butler County Public Health is staying busy to get everybody vaccinated as quickly as possible.

In Butler County, the expansion of eligibility for those able to get the vaccine has seen a relatively smooth transition. The public health department remains busy with clinics, but they aren't seeing the frantic demand for vaccine as they did when it first appeared on the scene.

"It's not the mad dash like when we got the first vaccine in January," said Public Health Director Jennifer Becker. "This has been much calmer."

The county is still hosting their normal boost clinic on Tuesday and prime clinic of Friday. In the meantime, they are working to arrange visit with area manufacturers to provide workers with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. One manufacturer had a clinic on Monday and three more are set to receive the vaccine over Wednesday and Thursday.

Once the manufacturing workers have had a chance to get vaccinated, Becker will start offering the J&J vaccine to the general public. A special J&J clinic has been tentatively scheduled for April 24, provided that the manufacturing population has been inoculated by then.

"I want to get those guys finished before we do anything else," said Becker.

As of Monday, April 12, approximately 9,780 doses of vaccine have been administered to Butler County residents, with 4,018 residents completing their two-dose vaccine series and an additional 235 receiving a one-dose vaccine.

A total of 1,618 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the county, increasing the county total in the last week by just four cases.

In Butler County, 7,032 individuals have been tested at some point during the pandemic, with a total of 28,461 tests performed on Butler County residents overall. In the last 14 days, 1.4% of total tests have been positive for the virus.

One additional death has been reported by the state, bringing the county total up to 34.