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CHARLESTON -- Planners in West Virginia are preparing for when the first shipments of the COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines will arrive.
The Joint Inter-Agency Task Force composed of public health groups and state agencies has been conducting exercises and plans another large-scale drill today, Bo Wriston, a public affairs spokesman for the West Virginia National Guard, said.
The National Guard is a key agency in the distribution of the vaccine in the initial phases to vaccinate priority groups. About 16,500 doses were ordered by the state from Pfizer, Gov. Jim Justice said earlier this week. Moderna last month was the second pharmaceutical company to request an emergency use authorization. The state is expecting an initial shipment of 26,000 Moderna doses.
Today's exercise will be a simulation from the time when the vaccines arrive in the state, deployment to the five distribution centers around West Virginia and the actual delivery of the vaccines to the Phase 1 priority groups, Wriston said.
Phase 1 priority recipients of the vaccinations are front-line healthcare workers.
The Food and Drug Administration met Thursday afternoon and granted emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine administered in two doses requires extreme cold temperature for storage, which adds to the logistical issues in the distribution.
Shipments may arrive as early as Sunday, although that is uncertain at this time, Wriston said. Planners, like the general public, are waiting for information, too, he said.
"We're in the process of waiting ourselves," Wriston said.
Agencies have been drilling to refine the distribution process. Last week, the task force held a table-top drill at the 130th Airlift Wing in Charleston and reviewed the plans for the distribution of the vaccine from suppliers, cold storage, distribution to facilities and documentation.
The task force includes the Department of Health and Human Resources, the National Guard, the Division of Emergency Management, the Higher Education Policy Commission, the West Virginia Hospital Association, the state Department of Agriculture, the state West Department of Education, the West Virginia Health Care Association and local Health Departments and other experts.
The task force was created by Justice earlier this year.
In the meantime, issues of tracking the people who have been vaccinated in rural America was addressed by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., during a hearing Thursday of the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
"Where does that responsibility lie and where's the recheck going to be on this … ?" Capito asked.
A system exists to track the dosages that are administered, according to Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania secretary of health and president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. The vaccine requires two dosages weeks apart to be effective.
"We have those present now," Levine said.