AUGUSTA, Georgia. (WRDW / WAGT) – The American Hospital Association says that if 75 percent of the United States’ population is vaccinated by the end of the summer, 1.8 million need to be vaccinated daily, every day.
But hospitals are unable to keep up with this for several reasons.
For one perspective, the CDC says that after just over a month, 9 million people have been vaccinated in the United States. That doesn’t amount to half a million vaccines a day.
Meanwhile, health care providers on both sides of the river are facing new challenges on the long road back to normal.
“I think everyone knows that the current pace is not acceptable. There are locations across the country that are doing better than others, ”said Dr. Phillp Coule, chief medical officer at Augusta University Health.
Both Georgia and South Carolina are in Phase 1A of COVID-19 vaccinations, but obstacles such as supply, personnel, logistics and costs are slowing down.
“It takes us longer to register a person to be vaccinated than to actually vaccinate,” said Coule.
Supply has also been a problem. Hospitals like the AU have also vaccinated South Carolina residents, but the doses only come from Georgia.
“Cities like Augusta, which are directly on the border where we don’t receive any funds from South Carolina, but we can still vaccinate South Carolina citizens,” explained Coule.
The ideal vaccination rate is about 1.4 million doses per day. We are currently at around 700,000, and both states are going at a slower pace than many.
So, what is the pace we need to get back to normal in the fall? We did the math based on the state’s population:
- South Carolina needs to administer about 23,000 doses a day. They are currently at about 15,000, according to state lawmakers.
- Georgia would need to donate about 44,000 a day.
Coule says that when supplies increase and pharmacies and doctors’ offices start vaccinating too, we will begin to see a reduction in vaccination efforts.
“I think it’s still reasonable to believe that in late summer, early fall and things are going to start going back to normal,” said Coule.
On Tuesday, AU Health obtained approval to start vaccinating the public within the phased guidelines. They will start as soon as the next shipment arrives.
Another obstacle is that Georgia and South Carolina require distributors to follow phases as a state. Some other states follow a phased approach by county, which allows smaller counties to complete phases more quickly than larger ones.
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