The Guthrie County Department of Public Health reports that the total number of first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine administered is 2,080.

Public Health Director Jotham Arber says the vaccine tracking has the county at 24.5 percent of the way complete. But, he says the county is doing even better because that number is calculated based on a different eligibility rate.

“That’s the total number of people that could get this shot. We’re phasing it into different groups right, so that is people over the age of 18 that could get the shot as recommended by the manufacturer. That’s not necessarily everyone that we can vaccinate right now because we don’t have the vaccine. That’s everybody that could get the shot based on the manufacturing requirements. If you’re doing that kind of numbers based on the eligibility 1A and 1B, we’re probably in the 50 to 60 percent category in that neighborhood.”

Arber says vaccine availability could increase soon as the Food and Drug Administration will be considering authorizing the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, a one-dose series, for emergency use authorization Friday. You can hear more from Arber in today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program.