Boxes containing the Modern COVID-19 vaccine are set to be shipped to the McKesson Distribution Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, USA on December 20, 2020.
Paul Sancya | Reuters
The federal government is changing the way it allocates coronavirus vaccine doses, now based on how quickly states can administer shots and the size of their large population, the Secretary of Health and Services said Tuesday. Humans, Alex Azar.
States will be given two weeks to prepare for the change, Azar told reporters during a news conference. This should give states enough time to improve their government notification data and ensure all vaccinations are documented “quickly,” he said.
Currently, states are not reporting vaccinations on time, Azar said, adding that vaccine doses “are sitting in hospital freezers.”
The announcement comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues new guidelines that extend the eligibility of the coronavirus vaccine to anyone 65 and older, as well as those with comorbid diseases, such as diabetes and kidney disease. color. The concentration of states in vaccinating health care workers and nursing homes has created a bottleneck, which slows the pace of vaccinations, a senior administration official told CNBC.
“States should not wait to complete Phase 1 prioritization before proceeding to broader eligibility categories,” Azar said Tuesday, explaining the new direction. “Think about it like getting on a plane. You may have a sequential order in which you get people on. But don’t wait until literally every person in one group embarks before moving on to the next.”
The administration will also stop withholding millions of doses reserved for the second round of two vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, the official said, adding that they have released doses that had been reserved on Sunday. President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team announced a similar plan on Friday.
Vaccine doses were previously assigned based on the number of adults in each state. But U.S. officials complain that the pace of vaccinations has been too slow as supply of vaccine doses exceeds demand.
As of Monday morning, more than 25.4 million doses had been distributed in the United States, but just over 8.9 million shots had been administered, according to CDC data. The figure is a far cry from the federal government’s goal of inoculating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million Americans by the end of this month.
This is a developing story. Please check for updates again.