HARDIN COUNTY, OHIO, Ohio — In a place that sees more cars than foot traffic, Bob Emlinger calls Kenton, Ohio home.
“It’s a small town. I think the population might be around 3,000 or 4,000,” Emlinger said.
But in the small county of Hardin, he notices a big problem.
“They've had the shots for the last five months, and a lot of people just don't want to bother with it,” Emlinger said.
The small town has several places for people to get vaccinated, including a Rite Aid and the Kenton Hardin Health Department.
Kelsey Ralsten with the health department said the number of vaccines they have mirrors the size of the community.
She said there’s only so much space they can store the doses.
"We're at about 31-32% vaccinated. We do have a large Amish population, which puts a little bit of skew in our numbers,” Ralsten said.
Ralston said they've vaccinated a little more than 9,000 people in Hardin County, but she said don't let the low vaccination rate fool you.
"Our transmission rate seems to be pretty low. We don't see a lot of cases I think over the last month we've had about a case a day average,” she said.
Even hearing that news, Emlinger wants more people to roll up their sleeves to help stop the spread of the delta variant.
"That new strain is a lot worse than the other one. Get your shots. You might be scared but it's better than dying,” Emlinger said.
To read about Delaware County, which has more than 63% of its residents vaccinated, click here.