Henry Ford Health System expects to vaccinate up to 5,000 people per day

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - The COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been slow in Michigan and throughout the country but the pace is starting to pick up. At Detroit's Henry Ford Health System, leaders believe they could be vaccinating up to 5,000 people per day.

In the ongoing effort to fight COVID-19, education is key and can be found with the click of a mouse. HFHS Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Adnan Munkarah says a good place to start is their web site.

"We have a number of documents that include frequently asked questions that the public can log into and are able to review these in able to have some of these questions, answered," Dr. Munkarah said.

The goal is for awareness to erase fear and misinformation so people get on board to get the coronavirus vaccine. 

"If you are eligible at the present time to be part of the current stage of vaccinations, please seek an appointment to get the vaccine," Dr. Munkarah said.

As Henry Ford Hospital works to educate the public about getting the vaccine, it’s also working to get its staff vaccinated 

"We offered vaccinations to all of our 33,000 teammates," said  HFHS President of Healthcare Operations and Chief Operating Officer Bob Riney. "We've had about 7,200 that have declined or not yet responded ."

But the hospital makes it clear that many of their staff members are in the process of receiving their second dose of vaccine.

"We currently have enough vaccine on hand to last to Wednesday at our current rate of use," said Riney.

The hospital is waiting for another round of vaccine supplies to arrive next week and acknowledges the public is wanting a faster rollout of the vaccine.

"Like Biden and others have said - get the vaccine that are all available out and into the states so we can ramp up our numbers," Riney said.