SPRINGFIELD, Mo (KY3) – Missouri has officially entered a new phase of its COVID-19 vaccination plan.
Monday begins Phase 1B, Level 2, which focuses on helping pregnant women or adults over the age of 65 at risk for serious coronavirus-related illnesses. People with intellectual or developmental disabilities are also eligible.
If you are not in these categories, you may have to wait a while.
“It limits us to the amount of vaccine we get,” said Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. “We have no control over that, so what we have is to make sure that as soon as we get it, it’s distributed.”
As of Sunday, about 200,000 vaccines have been administered statewide. It is a far cry from the number of people who are now eligible to receive it.
“As you can imagine, the universe of 1B, levels 1 and 2 and 1A, is almost 3 million people,” Dr. Williams said. “It’s half the state of Missouri.”
But the supply of incoming vaccines has been slow, which Dr. Williams said is not unexpected.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we only received 70,000 vaccines a week, or 74,000-80,000 I guess now,” Dr. Williams said.
This means that most will have to wait to receive it, even after signing up.
“We will need people to have patience as we work for this universe of three million people,” he said.
But while so far it has been a slow process, Dr. Williams has hope for the future.
“As we look around the state and see the morbidity and mortality that the virus has caused, we are very grateful that we have a tool that we believe will take us to Missouri to a much better place and quite quickly, I think in May or June.”
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