Local first responders line up for COVID vaccine

JACKSON, Tenn. — First responders and healthcare workers stood in line Tuesday morning to receive their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

“I was impressed by the crowd here,” said Jackson Fire Department instructor Jana Compton. “I feel like it’s not only our job to do our best to protect ourself and others, but to also set a good example.”

“I want to be safe for myself, as well as the other people I come in contact with,” said Leonard Graves, Madison County Penal Farm warden.

“It gives me the security to know I’m not spreading this horrible illness to anyone else,” said Intrepid Home Health Administrator Samantha Lineberry.

While the health department gave 70 doses Monday, that number went up to 475 Tuesday.

Madison County Sheriff John Mehr was one of those people getting the vaccine.

“I’m hoping the majority of our department comes and receives it,” Sheriff Mehr said.

U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller also received the vaccine Tuesday.

“Hopefully someone who knows me will say, ‘If Marshal Miller got it, it must be ok.’ That’s my mission today,” Miller said.

But when will the general public be able to get vaccinated? Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department Regional Director Kim Tedford says they’re still taking this day by day, and they don’t know the answer to that question yet — but there are a couple factors that go into it.

“If you go to the Tennessee vaccination plan that’s on the state website, you can look at the different phases and the groups those phases encompass,” Tedford said.

The vaccine is being distributed in four phases, and right now, the health department is only receiving a few hundred doses at a time.

“I don’t know how quickly the vaccine is going to roll out,” Tedford said. “So beyond the amount we will receive tomorrow, I don’t know when that next shipment is coming.”

West Tennessee Healthcare says they’ve vaccinated 1,630 people in three days with the Pfizer vaccine.