Flattening the Curve: COVID-19 Vaccines at UWG

The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) has designated UWG as a distribution site to provide COVID-19 vaccines for students, faculty and staff.

On March 22, the students, faculty and staff at UWG received an email to request an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccination doses that are being administered are manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech. However, only students, faculty and staff that are of the correct eligibility according to the Department of Public Health (DPH) can receive the vaccine.

“Any student, faculty or staff member who is 16 years or older may sign up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Medial Director of Health Services for UWG, Eric Heine. “But those who are younger than 18 and still are a minor will need a parent’s or guardian’s signature.

“Family members of faculty and staff are not currently routinely eligible for a vaccine here at UWG,” continued Heine. “But as soon as more vaccines become available and all persons on campus who desire a vaccine have received one than family members will be eligible to receive the vaccine.”

As of April 1, UWG has administered over 1,000 vaccines on campus. UWG plans to fully open its campus including restarting face-to-face instruction starting Fall 2021. UWG is constantly encouraging the members of the pack to apply and receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We are constantly sending out daily reminders of the vaccination clinics on campus,” said Heine. “We have made various social media posts and we are currently making a video with all of the information about the vaccine and that video will be sent to all of the members on campus.”

“The main clinic where the vaccine is being administered is the Coliseum,” continued Heine. “Although when there are leftover doses, they will be administered at Student Health Services. The actual injections are being given by nurses and from Student Health Services. The nursing students from the School of Nursing will be helping out as well, but they will be supervised by clinical instructors.”

UWG providing the vaccine to their students, faculty and staff will have a positive impact on the campus. Heine believes cases on campus will decrease because of the accessibility of the vaccine.

“By getting the maximum number of students and employees vaccinated, we will markedly decrease the incidence of COVID-19 cases on campus allowing us to return to more normal teaching and social activities without the concern for major outbreaks, as well as an eventual retraction of mitigation efforts, such as masks and physical distancing,” said Heine.