How 1,500 unused vaccines helped convince John Bel Edwards to expand eligibility in Louisiana | Coronavirus

When Governor John Bel Edwards expanded the vaccine’s eligibility earlier this week to anyone 16 and older with one of several general health conditions, he cited reports from providers of a “break” in the demand for consultations.

At the Nossa Senhora do Lago Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, authorities noticed a drop in interest on March 2, when 124 visits for coronavirus vaccines were not completed. That number soon grew to about 300 open slots per day.

On Sunday, the hospital had 1,500 unused doses on the shelves.

“That’s when we said, ‘We need to open eligibility. We need to see more people in the community get vaccinated,'” said LaDonna Williams, vice president of operations for the Our Lady of the Lake Doctors Group, who praised the Edwards administration for acting so quickly on your order.

Louisiana is now among the most open states in the United States when it comes to who can shoot. It is estimated that nearly three out of four adults in Louisiana meet the broad category of “overweight” or “obese” under the new rules released on Tuesday, and countless others now qualify under medical conditions like cancer, hypertension or are smokers .

“We try to find that sweet spot and when there is a little bit of daylight on the schedule, it is a message for us to expand,” said Dr. Joe Kanter, state health director, on Tuesday.

As expected, the demand for the life-saving jab soon followed. Ochsner Health said it received about 500 requests per hour for appointments after Edwards’ announcement, and Baton Rouge General filled 700 vacancies in 90 minutes. At the newly opened mass vaccination site at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, the appointments previously available this morning are filled in days in advance.

Nossa Senhora do Lago said her appointments for Thursday afternoon were scheduled seven days in advance – and the leftovers will soon be injected into the weapons.

“Our goal is to leave no vaccine on the shelf any longer than is absolutely necessary,” Edwards said of his decision on Tuesday. “The more people get vaccinated and the faster it happens, the more likely we are to get back to normal.”

Louisiana currently ranks 29th in the country for the percentage of its population fully vaccinated, with 10.5% of its residents fully vaccinated, according to data from the United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some providers said they did not experience so-called “slack” in consultations, but welcomed the expansion, despite their part in getting people to think about getting vaccinated sooner or later.

Dr. Jeffrey Elder, an LCMC Health executive who oversees distribution at the Morial Center, said that expanded eligibility “keeps interest in vaccination”, helping to prepare the public so that when supplies expand, the demand will be there.

The mass vaccination site is currently administering about 3,000 doses per week, but Elder said the amounts could be increased quickly.

“We could do three times the amount we are doing now, easily, without breaking a sweat, if we had enough doses,” said Elder.

Louisiana expects to receive about 100,000 doses next week, a shipment at the same level as previous weeks. Authorities expect a substantial increase in doses in April, but the exact figures are still unknown. The state said a small shipment of Johnson & Johnson’s unique vaccine could arrive next week, although a more substantive allocation is not expected until the end of the month.

The head of the Ochsner vaccination operation, Dawn Pevey, said it was rare for them to end the week with unused doses. Still, she said that demand had declined briefly among teachers, who received eligibility on February 18. Pevey said that Ochsner recently booked 700 doses for an exclusive event for teachers, although many were redirected elsewhere after it became clear that there would be leftovers.

Pevey said that Ochsner is capable of administering up to 75,000 doses a week, if supplies are available, and in January distributed about 25,000 doses over a two-day period to “test the pressure” of his operations.

“We are prepared to manage as much as we are given,” said Pevey.