The rapid expansion of COVID-19 vaccinations for the elderly across the United States has generated bottlenecks, system failures and resentment in many states due to the huge demand for vaccines.
The Mississippi Department of Health stopped making new appointments the same day it started accepting them due to a “monumental increase” in requests. People had to wait hours to schedule vaccines via a state website or a toll-free number on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and many were kicked out of the site for technical problems and had to restart.
In California, counties have begged for more coronavirus vaccine to reach millions of their elderly. South Carolina hospitals ran out of hours in a matter of hours. Telephone lines have become congested in Georgia.
Until the last few days, health workers and nursing home patients had been given priority in most places in the United States. But amid frustration with slow deployment, states opened the line for many of the country’s 54 million seniors with the blessing of the Trump administration, although the minimum age varies from place to place, aged 65, 70 or more.
On Thursday, New Jersey expanded its vaccines to people aged 16 to 65 with certain medical conditions – including up to 2 million smokers, who are more prone to health complications.
The US, for its part, recorded 3,848 deaths on Wednesday, below the historical record of 4,327 the previous day, according to Johns Hopkins University. The total number of deaths in the country due to COVID-19 reached 385,000.
More than 11.1 million Americans, or more than 3% of the United States population, received their first injection of the vaccine, a gain of about 800,000 over the previous day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. -market. The goal of inoculating between 70% and 85% of the population to obtain herd immunity and overcome the outbreak is still many months away.
California, which is experiencing an increase in deaths and hospitalizations, received more than 2.4 million doses as of Monday, but only a third of them have been used.
Los Angeles County, the most populous in the country, with 10 million inhabitants, said it could not provide vaccines to the elderly immediately because it had vaccinated only about a quarter of its 800,000 health workers.
“We are not done with our health professionals yet and, in fact, we do not have enough vaccine now to be able to do it more quickly,” said director of public health Barbara Ferrer. “We received no response from the state about the availability of the vaccine and how it would be distributed.”
Health officials in Santa Clara County said the county’s 2 million people only had enough vaccine to inoculate people aged 75 or older, not the crowd aged 65 or older.
“It’s almost like a beauty contest. And this shouldn’t be a beauty contest, ”said county supervisor Cindy Chavez. “This is about life and death.”
In Mississippi, officials said the new appointments are likely to have to wait until the expected shipment of vaccines in mid-February.
“Neither the county health department’s drive-through sites nor the … vaccine scheduling site were designed to accommodate the monumental increase we are currently experiencing,” said the state Department of Health. State officials said they “understand the frustration”.
In South Carolina, Kershaw Health in Camden begged people not to call their hospitals or doctors to schedule vaccine appointments after receiving more than 1,000 requests in two days. State health officials said their hotline received 5,000 calls on Wednesday.
Francis Clark said he tried several times to schedule an appointment for his 81-year-old mother, who lives alone outside Florence, South Carolina, and has no internet access. But the local hospital had no vacancies on Wednesday, Clark said, and the other vaccination sites are a long way away.
“My mom can’t drive to Charleston,” said Clark. “She is very old.”
Allison Salerno, an audio producer in Athens, Georgia, said she spent most of the day calling her state’s health department to arrange a vaccine appointment for her 89-year-old mother, who lives with her and her husband.
“I started calling at 8:30 am and on the 67th call I was finally put on hold,” said Salerno. “I had pre-registered it two weeks earlier online, but I never received a confirmation.”
After Salerno waited 65 minutes, someone finally answered and made an appointment for his mother on Saturday.
“My mother has not left since the pandemic began,” said Salerno. “She is a very healthy woman and wants to go to the supermarket, wants to do her hair.”
In the meantime, some states, like Minnesota, are waiting before opening doors.
“As we learn more, we will work to ensure that everyone eligible for a vaccine knows how, where and when they can get the vaccines,” the state Department of Health said in an email on Wednesday. “The opportunity for everyone to be vaccinated will come; it will take some time. “
Arizona, which had the highest COVID-19 diagnostic rate in the country last week, will begin enrolling people aged 65 and over next week. She also plans to open a vaccination facility at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, in addition to the one that distributes thousands of doses daily at the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
To speed up the pace of vaccinations, South Carolina has made a change to the rule allowing medical students, retired nurses and other professionals to administer vaccines.
California lawmakers are increasing pressure on Governor Gavin Newsom to likewise expand authorization for those who can administer doses to include nursing students, retired medical workers, firefighters and trained National Guard members.
Newsom said the state’s priority is to deliver vaccines “as quickly as possible for those facing the most serious consequences”. He asked for patience for those who were not yet eligible, saying, “Your time is coming.”