The Guthrie County Public Health Department is continuing to administer COVID-19 vaccines to reach an ultimate goal.

Public Health Director Jotham Arber tells Raccoon Valley Radio their goal is to achieve 75-percent vaccinations of Guthrie County residents by July. Following the recent approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the Pfizer vaccine to be given to kids 12-17 years-old, Arber says they have started doing that. However, he describes how having to vaccinate more people may make reaching that goal more difficult.

“Yes it will make it harder because now we’re adding people to the overall number of people eligible. So reaching that 75-percent might be a little more daunting if you’re looking at the whole county. But if we break it apart, and we look at just age groups, okay, from 15-24 we want to get to 75-percent, from 24-44 we want to get to 75-percent.”

Arber notes that vaccinating this new age group will allow for better protection within the school setting.

“Especially the junior high and high school (kids), that’s really where we saw the most spread anyways. When we were looking at demographics and infectivity throughout last year when you’re looking at the school. Those were the kids that really were the best spreaders of it when they were put into a setting where they could spread it.”

According to Tuesday’s report, Guthrie County Public Health said that 15-percent of 12-17 year-olds were fully vaccinated.