States are reaching the shortage of VOCID vaccines as eligibility expands

U.S. states are finally picking up the pace of their COVID-19 vaccination programs, so much so that many have already vaccinated so many of their health workers and senior residents who are willing to expand their eligibility.

At least 28 states and Washington, DC, have begun vaccinating teachers, and at least 19, including California, New York, and Illinois, have begun firing on people with underlying health conditions that put them at risk.

But this encouraging progress is maintained as states run out of doses to give. Some even delay the expansion of eligibility due to scarcity.

To date, nearly 53.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the U.S. and 11.8% of the population has had one or more doses.

There are a small amount of 1.7 million doses a day, but states that are excellent at vaccinating, such as West Virginia, are obstructed by the scarcity of doses.

West Virginia, with some of the worst death rates from despair, obesity, and heart disease in the U.S., has become the dark horse of vaccinations.

According to Bloomberg data, the state has administered at least one dose of vaccine to nearly 14% of its population, well above the national average.

But its rapid campaign is slowing, according to health officials.

“With a sparse range of vaccines nationwide, the state is currently focusing on vaccinating West Virginians 65 and older along with health care workers and teachers 50 and older,” said Allison Adler, director of communications for the United States. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources told DailyMail.com in an email.

“Right now, West Virginia needs more vaccines and continues to demand more to get them in its arms as quickly as possible.”

According to the Department of Health’s own vaccine tracker, West Virginia has given first doses to 254,646 people as of Monday.

He has administered an incredible 106.2% of his first doses, a milestone achieved by extracting additional doses from the vials of the Pfizer vaccine, thereby extending the supply.

The state has also given 97.3 percent of the 144,4000 second doses assigned to it.

On Jan. 26, President Biden promised that states would see 16 percent of the dose of vaccines they received the following week, starting Monday, Feb. 1.

He also said states would be notified of how many doses they will receive three weeks in advance.

But West Virginia has not seen shipments increase that much.

He has received 11,700 first doses and 11,700 second doses of Pfizer vaccine each week since December 21, 2020.

This week, its Modern dose allocation increased to 18,500 from each first and second dose, but that’s only eight percent of its previous allocation of 17,100 doses per week.

Despite requests to increase its shipments and the remarkable deployment of vaccines in West Virginia, this state must ration doses rather than give them to more people.

And it is not the only state facing this problem.

At least four other states – North Dakota, New Mexico, Utah and Montana – have used more than 90 percent of the doses sent to them by the federal government.

States that have used a smaller proportion of the doses assigned to them are even maintained.

California has administered only 74.2% of the nearly six million vaccines sent to it by the federal government.

And the state will begin vaccinating residents under the age of 65 and with severe disabilities or health conditions on March 15th.

But as of Monday, even people who were already eligible had difficulty receiving shots.

Two mass vaccination centers in San Francisco remained closed Monday due to a shortage of vaccines.

The Moscone Center and San Francisco City College sites will not be able to reopen until they get the next federal government vaccine shipment.

Illinois and New York also announced last week that they will soon begin vaccinating residents with “comorbidities” that put them at risk for COVID-19, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity or pregnancy.

New York opened vaccination requirements for all over-16s in these categories starting Monday, despite declining supply, low vaccination rates in rural areas and even some areas of the city of New York, like the Bronx, in addition to staying to vaccinate about 9,500 residents.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted Monday that there are now ten million people eligible for vaccination in New York, but there are only 300,000 doses allocated to the state per week.

He blamed the Trump administration.

“The Trump administration had said they were increasing eligibility and would increase vaccine supply, so states increased eligibility, but the Trump administration increased vaccine supply,” he said. Cuomo during Monday’s press session.

“Biden comes in, and basically what happens is that‘ the closets are empty, ’” he added, referring to a Buffalo News editorial.

Cuomo credited the Biden administration for immediately providing more doses to manufacturers.

“But there are more eligible people across the country than the doses available,” he said.

“The federal government increased eligibility, but never increased supply.”

As a result, New York now has ‘10 million people chasing 300,000 doses ’.

Cuomo did not point out that Moderna’s dose supply to New York increased in the past three weeks, and is expected to receive 111,300 doses this week, compared to 103,000 the previous week and 94,200 the previous week.

However, at the current rate at which the state is receiving doses, it will take 33 weeks to vaccinate all those who are currently eligible in New York.

There will still be 9.46 million New York City residents who need vaccines (including those under the age of 16, for whom the FDA has not yet authorized shots).

Teachers in 28 states are also eligible for vaccination (although some states have restrictions on this designation, such as West Virginia, which says only educators over the age of 50 can get the vaccine).

These states are:

The U.S. government now has contracts for 600 million combined doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, enough for almost the entire U.S. population to get both doses.

And vaccine manufacturers are working hard to make more doses, but bottlenecks have continued to emerge at the manufacturer’s and federal’s distribution level.