Winter storms that caused more than two dozen deaths and left millions of people without power can also cause “widespread delays” in the shipment of the Covid-19 vaccine in the coming days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. .
“Due to the severe winter that is affecting a large part of the country, the US government is projecting widespread delays in shipments and deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming days,” CDC spokeswoman Jasmine Reed said in an email.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
“Transport partners are working to deliver the vaccine whenever possible, depending on local conditions, but adverse weather is expected to continue to impact shipments from FedEx facilities in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as UPS facilities in Louisville, Ken. , which serve as centers for sending vaccines to various states, “said Reed.
As of Tuesday night, more than 39 million people in the United States received one or more doses of the vaccine, according to the CDC. About 15 million received both doses.
In Texas, where more than 4 million people are in the cold after the weather system paralyzed the state’s power grid, the State Department of Health Services said this week’s loading of vaccine doses would not arrive until Wednesday. .
“No one wants to put the vaccine at risk when trying to apply it under dangerous conditions,” the department tweeted on Tuesday.
On Monday, Harris County officials, where Houston is located, struggled to administer thousands of doses of Moderna’s vaccine after a power outage and a backup generator failure.
“I literally dropped everything, put everything in and ran here,” said a student at Rice University, one of five locations where doses were administered, told NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston.
Chicago closed all vaccination and testing sites operated by the city on Tuesday because of the weather and said shipments to the city would be delayed – although it hopes to recover quickly.
Download the NBC News app for complete coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Ohio governors and Florida he also said that shipments would be affected. The Colorado Department of Health said the delays would affect the state’s allocation of 133,000 doses of vaccines that were due by Thursday.
In Pennsylvania, the Geisinger health care system rescheduled appointments at some units that were scheduled for Wednesday and Friday. Appointments for Wednesday in Monmouth County, New Jersey, have been rescheduled for Friday.
When a major winter storm created blizzard-like conditions in parts of Pennsylvania and the Northeast this month, there were also some postponement of vaccine replenishment, closure of vaccination sites and rescheduling of appointments.
