Residents in New Orleans and other parishes in southeastern Louisiana are receiving coronavirus vaccines at a much faster rate than in the rest of the state, causing a change in the way public health officials plan to distribute future doses.
Approximately 7.4% of New Orleans residents received at least one injection, according to data released Friday by the Louisiana Department of Health. This is the largest percentage of the population in all nine public health regions in the state, and more than double the rate in the Lake Charles area, where only 3.1% of people received an injection.
Gwyn Baddley of Baton Rouge, 81, on the left, receives her first injection of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Baton Rouge LPN General Medical Center Constance Lara, on the right, at the new dedicated vaccine clinic within her Health Center, Thursday Monday, January 21, 2021. BRG opened the new clinic on Monday this week at Avenida Summa 9001, on its Bluebonnet campus. Combined with its other locations, the clinic will allow the hospital to vaccinate thousands of people each week.
In the Baton Rouge area, as well as on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, about 6% of residents received at least one dose. In the region around Lafayette, 4.6% of people received the vaccine.
A large part of the disparity is probably due to a greater concentration of hospitals and other health services in New Orleans and other cities.
COVID-19 vaccination progress map
The New Orleans region has about 3,300 hospital beds, about 1,000 more than the next highest region, and is also home to Ochsner Health and LCMC Health, two of the state’s largest hospital operators. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals were prioritized during the first weeks of the vaccine’s launch.
Still, the data has prompted state officials to change the way they plan to send vaccines to ensure that supplies that are still difficult to obtain reach people across the state.
Dr. Joe Kanter, the state’s health officer, said the health department will begin sending doses to each of the state’s nine health regions based on population.
Dr. Joe Kanter, head of the state’s coronavirus response at the La Department of Public Health. Dept., speaks at Governor John Bel Edwards’ press conference, updating the state’s COVID-19 response, Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Edwards announced that the state is entering another four weeks of restrictions on the Phase 2 coronavirus because of the virus’s influence on the state.
“If there is any inequality in what the regions receive, we will resolve this in the coming weeks,” said Kanter. “We should all see these discrepancies diminish each week going forward.”
Aly Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health, said the per capita allocation model will take time to implement, but that the state is starting to change this week.
The shift comes at a time when coronavirus cases remain close to the maximum across Louisiana and demand for the two federally authorized vaccines far exceeds supply. On Monday, the state confirmed 1,992 new cases and 26 new deaths by COVID-19. The figures reflected two days of data.
The Biden administration told Louisiana authorities that coronavirus vaccine shipments will not increase much for at least a month, …
In the past few days, residents over 70 – the group currently qualified to receive vaccines along with healthcare professionals – have reported long waits and canceled appointments, and Governor John Bel Edwards announced that Louisiana was receiving far fewer doses in the coming weeks than the federal authorities had initially indicated.
In the first few weeks of the state’s immunization effort, which began in mid-December, the state sent vaccines to hospitals based on the number of employees working at each facility.
At that time, vaccines were limited to hospital employees and those who lived or worked in long-term institutions, such as nursing homes, where distribution was made by the federal government via Walgreens and CVS.
Failed data collection on the breed of coronavirus vaccine recipients in Louisiana made it difficult for state officials to understand …
After expanding eligibility to more health professionals and people aged 70 and over on January 4, Kanter said the state was still limited in terms of sending the vaccine by the number of providers who signed up to get the vaccines.
Now that the state has a list of 1,800 providers, he said Louisiana has enough hospitals, pharmacies and other facilities to distribute doses of the vaccine to the population. He noted that the federal government widely distributed vaccines per capita to states.
The new method for deciding where to send the vaccines should boost regions that have seen backward numbers so far. But it can also exacerbate the cancellation of consultations in some of the largest health systems in New Orleans and other areas that have received a larger share of doses to date.
The Louisiana Department of Health told health professionals on Tuesday to stop limiting vaccinations to their own patients, warning that they could lose …
Ochsner Health, the state’s largest health care institution, received just 1,950 first doses this week at its main campus in Jefferson Parish, according to Ochsner Chief Executive Officer Warner Thomas. In the week of January 4 – the first time people over 70 had access to the vaccine in Louisiana – Jefferson Parish de Ochsner’s unit received at least 9,450 doses, according to data from the health department.
It was not clear on Monday to what extent the lowest number of doses was the result of the new allocation model.
Neel said that Ochsner “is still receiving a vaccine, but we have implemented a new per capita allocation model”. She added that the state is working every week to obtain “fairer coverage”.
“It is not perfect, but it is improving and will continue to improve,” said Neel. “It is difficult, we know, and it is not ideal for planning, but we are grateful to the providers who understand that none of us can make assumptions or guarantees about future allocations. We are all in this together. “
Governor John Bel Edwards speaks at his news conference updating the state’s COVID-19 response, Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at the governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Edwards announced that the state is entering another four weeks of restrictions on the Phase 2 coronavirus because of the virus’s influence on the state.
Edwards said last week that he expects the state to receive virtually stable shipments – about 58,000 doses a week – over the next month or more.
After scheduling more than 100,000 vaccination appointments over several weeks, Ochsner canceled about 21,000 appointments, Thomas said at a news conference on Monday, citing supply issues.
Kanter attributed some of the cancellations among providers to optimism after the Trump administration’s announcement on January 12 that it would no longer withhold second doses. But that windfall never materialized after states quickly discovered that the previous government had no stock to ship.
Ronald Romano, who will be 70 in a few days, adds his name to the list to receive the COVID-19 vaccination at Broad Avenue Pharmacy on N. Broad Street in New Orleans on Monday, January 4, 2021. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Thomas said he has no idea how many doses may be available to Ochsner in the coming weeks, or how the state’s new allocation model will affect his hospital system. Ochsner “orders” vaccine doses every Monday and finds out how much he will receive on Fridays, he said.
Providers fill out application forms every week and send them to the state. The form instructs providers to wait for these people to schedule their vaccines until the request is authorized.
Ochsner Health System, the largest in Louisiana, said it will delay vaccine appointments for thousands of patients after receiving zero new doses …
Kanter said the state uses these application forms widely to get an idea of how many vaccines each provider can administer. But the state currently has far fewer doses available than providers are asking.
“Only tier one hospitals ordered 110,000 doses last week,” said Kanter, referring to a designation for typically larger hospitals that have emergency departments. “In the state, we had 58,000 to 59,000 doses.”
According to state data during the first five weeks of vaccine distribution, level 1 hospitals received most doses of the vaccine, followed by the federal program for nursing homes, independent pharmacies, allied health units and chain pharmacies.
On Sunday, Louisiana was ranked 13th in the country, including the District of Columbia, in number of doses administered per capita, according to data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state has administered 61% of the doses distributed so far, which was also good for the 13th in the USA