ATLANTA — While the state’s top health agency leads the COVID-19 pandemic response, its employees have been reluctant to get the vaccine.

Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Department of Public Health told lawmakers Thursday that vaccine reluctance is widespread and an issue the state is facing in hospitals as well as its own health departments.

“Only about 30% of our own staff in our own health departments wanted to be vaccinated — which means 70% did not,” Toomey said. “The same was true in hospitals.”

The state had such a “disappointing” response to the vaccine by medical workers that officials decided to move forward with opening eligibility for all Georgians 65 and older.

Weeks ago, officials pointed specifically to medical workers in rural areas showing the most hesitancy, but on Thursday, Toomey said the issue extended to some metro hospitals as well.

“We had such little uptake among health care workers that it was, frankly to me, disappointing. Not only because you know they are at high risk to acquire COVID but that they serve as role models in the community,” she said. “That your own doctor, your own nurse, your sister, your cousin who’s a nurse’s aide or a staff in a hospital says, ‘well I wouldn’t get that,’ I think that sets a tone of distrust.”

Earlier this week, Toomey said even in nursing and long-term care facilities which have been ravaged by the pandemic, employees are refusing vaccinations at the same rate despite being some of the first in the state eligible to receive doses.

State officials knew one of their biggest challenges in vaccinating Georgians was getting them to take it when it became available. With limited supplies coming from the federal government, Gov. Brian Kemp voiced his frustration a few weeks ago when he said the small number of doses sent to Georgia end up sitting unused — particularly in rural areas.

While Toomey and other state agency heads have been meeting with lawmakers this week to discuss upcoming budget decisions, the state’s health chief has been fielding an onslaught of questions about the vaccine rollout from legislators.

After health care workers displayed reluctance, she said the state moved forward with opening eligibility requirements but the decision has clogged online and over-the-phone appointment systems.

“We made the decision — I think it was the right one — to open up the vaccine process to a broader group of individuals,” she said.

Thursday afternoon, Kemp said the state would not expand current eligibility criteria further.

The Republican governor gave a stark warning to Georgians that although a vaccine is available, the risk that COVID-19 poses is still fatal.

“Yes, the vaccine is here. Therapeutics have gotten much better,” he said. “… But this does not mean that this virus cannot kill you or put you in the hospital.”

Georgia’s hospital capacity has been severely strained throughout the pandemic but especially with the most recent surge of cases in Georgia and across the country.

“Our hospitals cannot handle another surge of COVID-19 patients on top of their current workload,” Kemp said.