In the states’ race to administer Covid-19 vaccines to residents, Alabama is always behind the block.
Alabama administered 10,013 doses per 100,000 people on Tuesday, the lowest rate among states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, it had one of the highest rates in the U.S. for positive coronavirus tests last month, at 29.1%, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Several factors are at play, say health officials and experts. Alabama’s public health system has been depleted by years of insufficient funding, leaving some counties with health departments with few employees or no departments at all. Administrative and technological problems, including inappropriate naming programs and outdated software, have hampered the effort.
The Alabama hotline for vaccine appointments initially failed, with insufficient lines to meet demand, said Dr. Karen Landers, a district physician in the Alabama Department of Public Health. A scheduling website went live only last week. Last month, a booking failure resulted in people showing up for scheduled appointments at a vaccination event in the Birmingham area, only to find that it was listed by mistake and no one was there.
A large portion of Alabama’s population lives in rural areas with limited health services. Since 2009, seven rural hospitals have closed in the state, part of a wider wave of closures driven by factors such as population loss and poverty among patient populations, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services at the University of Carolina From north.