Shipments of coveted vaccines delayed by the storm arrive in the middle of the week: White House adviser

All Covid-19 vaccine dose shipments that were delayed last week by the historic winter storm are expected to be delivered in half a week, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor for the response to Covid-19, said Monday.

Slavitt said Friday that the storm delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses, which represented shipments of about three days.

“I reported on Friday that we would recover deliveries later this week,” Slavitt said Monday at the White House Covid-19 press conference. “We now anticipate that all overdue doses will be delivered in half a week.”

He added that on Monday the federal government plans to deliver about 7 million doses of vaccine, a combination of shots that were delayed last week and some that were due out this week. He said the government’s ability to recover quickly from the storm is thanks to Army members and McKesson employees, whom the government has hired to help distribute and logistics the distribution of the vaccine.

“Seventy McKesson employees volunteered to work shifts from 1 a.m. Saturday night, Sunday morning to prepare shipments to meet the 11 a.m. traffic deadline,” he said, and add that UPS employees were also flexible to accommodate pending deliveries.

Slavitt added that while the White House planned to catch up quickly to administer the doses, “it will take time” for vaccination sites to recover the inoculations.

“We encourage vaccination sites to follow the same example of those who work long hours to recover deliveries by scheduling more appointments to vaccinate the anxious audience as quickly as possible,” he said. Slavitt added that vaccination sites in some parts of the country that were especially affected by the storm remain closed.

The pace of vaccinations in Texas, which was shaken by the storm that left millions in the state without electricity, suffered severely. Slavitt said the average seven-day daily dose dropped 31 percent last week.