Mass vaccination sites in eight cities across Alabama combined to deliver more than 76,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines this week, as the state sought to increase its distribution.
But some of these sites may not open next week or operate at a lower capacity than this week.
Alabama state health officer Dr. Scott Harris said on Friday that the state does not receive enough doses every week to supply these drive-thru clinics at the same rates, and that some of the locations may choose not to administer drive-thru clinics next week.
“Clearly, this is a successful model, we would like to continue doing that,” said Harris on Friday in a media call. “But we currently don’t have the ability to continue doing this week after week.”
Many of the drive-thru sites are designed to be part of a weeklong spike and will not open every week. Some, such as the three locations in the Birmingham area operated by UAB, will remain open using UAB Hospital’s vaccine supply allocations.
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Harris said the state receives between 60,000 and 70,000 first doses a week, about 30,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 40,000 of the Modern vaccine. Drive-thru clinics distributed more first doses this week than the state receives on average each week.
Harris said the state used essentially all of the Pfizer vaccine supply it received last week to supply drive-thru clinics.
Each location is managed by a nearby hospital, which provides the staff and equipment needed to operate the clinic and receives vaccine shipments from federal suppliers.
The Montgomery website was designed as a week-long peak location and has not announced plans to reopen after this week.
The Selma clinic closed operations on Wednesday afternoon after distributing all its doses in just three days.
Maegan Austin, a spokeswoman for the Vaughan Regional Medical Center in Selma, said the Selma site will host an ADPH clinic once a week on Thursdays, but will not reopen as a mass vaccination center until the hospital receives another. large supply of vaccine.
Harris said it would be up to each clinic to keep its drive-thru operation open in the future.
“Any provider that receives [vaccine] product is certainly free to distribute as you wish, ”he said. “You know, some providers may prefer to have a large scale drive-up and walk-in clinical environment. Some may want to do this through commitments, one at a time. “
He said these operations can be a laborious process and may not make sense if clinics offer fewer consultations.
“Usually speaking, you are transporting everything, every piece of equipment and all your personnel and all of your items that you need from a place where you are already vaccinating to somewhere you are not vaccinating,” said Harris. “And then they they need a lot of resources to do it. And I think unless you have a large amount of vaccine to give very, very quickly, in general, people are not going to give it to a mass clinic. ”
The breakdown of injections administered in each mass clinic as of Friday morning is as follows:
- Birmingham (3 locations) – 12,139 doses
- Huntsville – 12,000 doses
- Mobile (4 locations) – 22,325 doses
- Anniston – 5,000 servings
- Dothan – 6,100 doses
- Montgomery – 8,000 doses
- Selma – 5,000 servings
- Tuscaloosa – 5,889 doses
- Total – 76,453 doses
Some clinics will continue to administer doses on Fridays and Saturdays, and Harris said the totals may increase as there may be longer than normal delays in entering data from remote locations.
Spokesmen for the Birmingham, Huntsville and Dothan sites said those sites will remain open for the next week, although some will have reduced capacity. The US health clinic in Mobile says it will continue to schedule appointments to receive the vaccine through its online registration. AL.com is working to establish which of the other sites will remain open next week.
* Updated at 3pm with new total vaccine site numbers