 As cases of COVID-19 in Pike County plateau, Pike County health director Tammy Riley spoke with Mountaintop about the current number of those vaccinated and the continued need to be protected against the virus. In Pike County, the state website reflects the Pike County for the entire population is that we have a slightly over a 51% vaccination participation rate. That's not where we need to be. We need to be higher than that. The state, statewide, they're over 60% for the age 65 and older, those most at risk. The state, you know, is way above us, 80, 90%, we're currently at 72% in Pike County. So 72% of our population, 65 and older, are vaccinated, 51% overall. Since the Delta variants dominance over the county, Riley adds that efforts have influenced some to get vaccinated, but we need to work harder. I think a lot of individuals saw, either in their own families, in their friends circle, in their communities, their church circles, they saw, and they saw also the hospitals reach out to the community and express how the numbers were reflected showing that most of the hospitalizations, most of the ICU beds during the Delta surge were occupied by unvaccinated individuals. It was a crisis for the unvaccinated primarily, and I believe that that was communicated. And so that did sway some individuals to seek vaccination, and others it just simply did not. The bottom line is we're currently not where we need to be. 51% vaccine percentage, you know, participation rate is not where we need to be. It definitely needs to be higher. And while those may see cases of COVID-19 plateauing across the county, Riley continues to emphasize the virus's burden on our healthcare system. Yeah, we're definitely seeing a plateau. We're at a high level. For example, the daily rate that we're seeing right now is between 30 and 60 cases a day. Today, when I looked at the seven-day rolling average, we're averaging 44 cases. That's a raw average, 44 cases per day. It's higher when you look at that per 100,000. For example, that rate goes up to 70, 80 per day. But the raw average is 44 a day. That's still an overwhelming burden for public health. CDC determines any rate over 25 per day would be unmanageable by public health. So we're definitely in a high range. It's all relative in that it feels like we're getting a little bit of a break. But we're really about where we were in the January surge. So, you know, the hospitals numbers are going down slightly. Our daily caseload's going down slightly. We've plateaued at a high level is what I would say. We're basically where we were in January in the middle of the surge. For those seeking vaccination after infection, Riley adds that once recovered, those eligible should get the shot and not wait 90 days. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Hodgeall.