W.Va. one of several states getting reduced number of vaccines next week
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CHARLESTON – State officials in charge of COVID-19 vaccine distribution were told Thursday night that West Virginia’s allotment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be reduced by as much as 45 percent less than originally promised.
“Hiccups are not really permissible when people are dying in my world,” said Gov. Jim Justice during his Friday coronavirus briefing with media. “I haven’t been very happy about this.”
Justice said state health officials were notified by federal officials that the original allotment of Pfizer vaccine for next week would be reduced. West Virginia is one of multiple states that have been told about reduced Pfizer allotments for next week, including Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.
“As soon as I heard this, I was on the phone with the powers-that-be in the federal government, saying ‘what in the world are we doing and what’s going on,'” Justice said. “We’ll stay on top of it.”
According to Axios, many states planned their vaccine distribution around the original allocation numbers, causing states to change those plans and adapt. Vaccine dose reductions could be between 40 percent and 45 percent.
Justice said the state was told the reason for the reduction was due to production lags for the Pfizer vaccine. In a statement Thursday, Pfizer said there are no production issues, claiming to still have millions of vaccine doses in their warehouse ready to go.
“This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses.”
West Virginia was allocated 16,575 first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The vaccine requires two shots spread out by three weeks. According to Justice, the state has distributed more than 15,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine since Monday, with 11,000 doses already administered. The state ordered an additional 11,700 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for next week.
Vaccine delivery to all 66 hospitals in the state should be complete by the end of the weekend for vaccination of frontline healthcare workers. So far, 5,400 doses have been given to residents and staff of long-term care facilities. By Saturday, that number will jump to 8,000 doses administered to residents and staff at 50 long-term care facilities. Nearly 90 percent of long-term care residents so far have taken the vaccine, though only 60 percent of staff have taken the vaccine.
Justice and state officials announced Wednesday a plan to vaccinate all long-term care residents and staff by Jan. 14, 2021. Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard and the leader of the Joint Interagency Task Force for Vaccines, said as long as the Moderna vaccine ships next week, the state remains on track for completing nursing homes and critical hospitals by the middle of January.
“Our plan allowed for a contingency to allow us to continue to conduct that operation next week,” Hoyer said. “Our changes will come as the phases move out later on, and we will hope the following week that our Pfizer numbers go back up.”
The Moderna vaccine was approved by an FDA panel Thursday and is expected to be approved for emergency authorization by the FDA this weekend. Once approval is granted, West Virginia will get 32,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine on top of the doses the state already received of the Pfizer vaccine.
The state added 50 additional pharmacies that are helping with vaccine inventory and distribution for long-term planning. As of Friday, more than 100 members of the National Guard are working on vaccine distribution.
Justice again encouraged people, especially youth and adults over 60, to get tested for COVID-19. State and local health officials hope to identify asymptomatic spreaders of the virus as well as older residents who have early symptoms. The Department of Health and Human Resources reported 123 COVID-19 deaths since Monday’s state coronavirus briefing. Friday, the state reported the first COVID-19 death of someone younger than 20, a 17-year-old man from Kanawha County.CHARLESTON – State officials in charge of COVID-19 vaccine distribution were told Thursday night that West Virginia’s allotment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be reduced by as much as 45 percent less than originally promised.
“Hiccups are not really permissible when people are dying in my world,” said Gov. Jim Justice during his Friday coronavirus briefing with reporters. “I haven’t been very happy about this.”
Return to theintelligencer.net later today for more on this developing story.