States hit COVID vaccine shortage as eligibility expands

US states are finally accelerating the pace of their COVID-19 vaccination programs, so much so that many have already vaccinated so many of their healthcare professionals and elderly residents that they are ready to expand eligibility.

At least 28 states and Washington, DC, have started vaccinating teachers and at least 19 – including California, New York and Illinois – have started giving vaccines to people with underlying health problems that put them at risk.

But that encouraging progress is being held back as states run out of doses to give. Some are even delaying the expansion of eligibility due to scarcity.

So far, almost 53.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States and 11.8% of the population has received one or more doses.

Only 1.7 million doses are being administered per day, but states that are excelling in vaccination, such as West Virginia, are hampered by the lack of doses.

West Virginia, with some of the worst death rates from despair, obesity and heart disease in the United States, has become the underdog of vaccines.

The state has given at least one dose of the vaccine to almost 14% of its population – well above the national average – according to Bloomberg data.

But his rapid campaign is being slowed, say local health officials.

“With a reduced supply of vaccines across the country, the state is currently focused on vaccinating West Virginia residents aged 65 and over, along with healthcare professionals and teachers aged 50 and over,” Allison Adler, director of communications from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, said DailyMail.com by email.

“At the moment, West Virginia needs more vaccines and continues to ask for more, so that we can put them in the arms as soon as possible.”

According to the health department’s own vaccine tracker, West Virginia gave the first doses to 254,646 people by Monday.

He administered an incredible 106.2 percent of his first doses – a feat accomplished by extracting extra doses from Pfizer vaccine bottles, thereby increasing supply.

The state also gave 97.3% of the 144,4000 second doses that were allocated.

On January 26, President Biden promised that states would see a 16% increase in the number of vaccine doses they received the following week, starting on Monday, February 1.

He also said that states would be notified how many doses they will receive three weeks in advance.

But West Virginia has not seen remittances soar.

He has received 11,700 first doses and 11,700 second doses of Pfizer vaccine each week since December 21, 2020.

This week, your dose allocation of Moderna has increased to 18,500 for each first and second dose – but that is only an 8% increase over your previous allocation of 17,100 doses per week.

Despite requests to increase its shipments and the extraordinarily smooth distribution of vaccines in West Virginia, that state is having to ration the doses instead of giving them to more people.

And it is not the only state that faces this problem.

At least four other states – North Dakota, New Mexico, Utah and Montana – used more than 90 percent of the doses sent by the federal government.

Even states that used a smaller portion of the doses assigned to them are being withheld.

California administered only 74.2 percent of the nearly six million doses of vaccines sent by the federal government.

And the state will begin allowing residents under the age of 65 and those with disabilities or serious health problems to be vaccinated on March 15.

But as of Monday, even already eligible people were having a hard time getting injections.

Two mass vaccination centers in San Francisco remained closed on Monday due to a lack of vaccines.

Moscone Center and City College of San Francisco locations will not be able to reopen until they receive the next load of vaccines from the federal government.

Illinois and New York also announced last week that they will soon start vaccinating residents with ‘comorbidities’ that put them at high risk for COVID-19 – including heart disease, diabetes, obesity or pregnancy.

New York opened vaccine eligibility to anyone over the age of 16 in these categories starting on Monday, despite shrinking supplies, low vaccination rates in rural areas and even parts of New York City, like the Bronx, and has about 9,500 nursing home residents to vaccinate.

Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed out on Monday that there are now 10 million people eligible for vaccination in New York – but only 300,000 doses allocated to the state each week.

He openly blamed the Trump administration.

“The Trump administration said they were increasing eligibility and would increase the supply of the vaccine, so the states increased eligibility, but the Trump administration increased the supply of the vaccine,” Cuomo said at a news conference on Monday.

“Biden arrives and basically what happens is that ‘the lockers are empty,'” he added, referring to a Buffalo News editorial.

Cuomo gave credit to the Biden administration for immediately guaranteeing more doses from the manufacturers.

“But there are more eligible people across the country than availability of doses,” he said.

“The federal government increased eligibility, but never increased the offer.”

As a result, New York now has ’10 million people chasing 300,000 doses. ‘

Cuomo did not note that the supply of Modern New York doses has increased in the past three weeks, and is scheduled to receive 111,300 doses this week, compared with 103,000 the previous week and 94,200 the previous week.

Still, at the current rate, the state is receiving doses, it will take 33 weeks for all currently eligible in New York to be vaccinated.

There will still be 9.46 million New York residents who need vaccines (including children under 16, for whom the FDA has not yet authorized vaccines).

Teachers in 28 states are now also eligible for vaccination (although some states have restrictions on this designation, such as West Virginia, which says that only educators over 50 can get the vaccine).

These states are:

The US government now has contracts for 600 million combined doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines – enough for almost the entire US population to receive both doses.

And vaccine manufacturers are working full steam ahead to produce more doses, but bottlenecks have continued to arise at the levels of manufacturers and federal distribution.