Sullivan County has more than 5,000 people vaccinated so far, but with the county planning to increase distribution next month, they’re asking for help from volunteers in getting vaccines out.

“That’s a full clinic day and we see a minimum of 200 people, so we’re really cranking it out every 10, 15 minutes,” said Nancy McGraw, the county's public health director.

A combination of Sullivan County Health Department staff and volunteers are efficiently getting people vaccinated. They’ll be vaccinating around 300 people this week, but as one of the region’s smaller counties, they’ve had to pull staff from other departments to assist public health services.

“We have emergency management helping us, we have EMTs helping us, we have county staff from many other departments that are filling in here and there,” McGraw said.

But as the county plans to ramp up distribution in the coming weeks, they’ll need more people to help vaccinate county residents. So Sullivan County is calling for volunteers to assist in vaccine distribution, registration, inventory, and data entry.

“The most important thing is to allow our staff not to be overwhelmed and exhausted," said Bruce Ellsweig, the county's medical director. "They’ve been performing outstanding duty so far. But eventually, without the help that can be provided by a medical reserve staff, people will burnout.”

The county intends to do this scaling up at SUNY Sullivan, where they can use the larger space to get more people vaccinated. And they say they’ll need plenty of volunteers to ensure that burnout doesn’t happen.

“We could use 100 (volunteers), easily. Not everybody who volunteers is available all the time, so we’re going to have to fill in slots when people are available,” McGraw said.

If you’re interested in volunteering, you can find more information at the New York State Health Department website.