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Ariana Taylor
| The Detroit News
Wayne County Health Department officials on Tuesday instructed elderly residents to contact local hospitals to arrange vaccinations against COVID-19, as the few doses they received from the state are reserved for first responders, long-term care staff and other workers in the front line. .
Dr. Mouhanad Hammami, Wayne County health strategist, told Wayne County commissioners Tuesday that the department has requested nearly 5,000 doses of the vaccine for the past three shipments, but has received far fewer doses.
“The state did not get what they expected from the federal government, we did not get what we expected from the state and so on. You can only distribute what you have,” Hammami told commissioners.
The state’s largest province, excluding Detroit, received three vaccinations. The province has requested 4,875 doses each time, Hammami said. The county received 1,950 doses on December 17; 975 doses on December 29 and 2,925 doses on Monday.
Hammami said Monday’s shipment would be exhausted by the middle of next week.
“From today we need enough for 11,000 people. Tomorrow the number will increase more and more,” Hammami told commissioners.
Hammami said that while state agencies allow agencies to move to Phase 1B, which allows anyone over the age of 65 to be vaccinated, this is not possible in Wayne County. “We can not move to 1B at the same speed that everyone expects of us,” he said.
The province has an estimated 500,000 people eligible for vaccines and 11,000 people registered for vaccinations.
Hammami said hospitals and health systems currently have the most reliable supply of vaccines for the elderly.
“I want to emphasize that anyone 65 years and older, because it is the contradiction that the state said: ‘Call your health department’, which will not benefit them if they call us. In fact, it will place a lot of burden on you. “because we’re going to repeat the same message: ‘You need to go to your healthcare system,’ ‘Hammami told The Detroit News on Monday.
The province is also working with supervisors to investigate school districts to determine how many teachers are willing to get the vaccine to determine future needs, he said.
Hospitals were also overwhelmed by requests for vaccinations. Beaumont Health tripled its server capacity over the weekend after its website crashed on Friday due to high demand for COVID-19 vaccines.
The increase in demand came after Beaumont notified patients Thursday night that vaccinations are available for people 65 and older from Monday.
Nearly 1 million Beaumont patients have access to myBeaumontChart, an online health portal that connects people to their health records, medical test information, and appointments.
Beaumont currently has the capacity to vaccinate 3,200 people a day at the Beaumont Service Center in Southfield and plans to expand to additional sites soon.
Henry Ford Health System said it started reaching out to its existing patients aged 65 and over via MyChart, the hospital’s online patient portal, on Friday afternoon and is proactively trying to contact patients who are not part of the system to encourage them to report, spokesman John Gillespie said. said.
► For subscribers: Vaccine demand in Michigan exceeds supply
Tim Killeen, chairman of the Commission on Health and Human Services, said it would not be a good idea for the province to use its size as a reason to use more doses of the vaccine.
“You better believe that each jurisdiction insists that more vaccines come to their jurisdiction,” Killeen said. “The last thing you want is the number of vaccines your local jurisdiction receives is directly related to the political power of individuals in that jurisdiction. We must distribute this vaccine without regard to the policies involved.”
There are more than 58,000 cases in the country, and an additional 27,000 cases in Detroit.
With the exception of Detroit, the province counts 1,859 deaths, including Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and Dearborn Heights Mayor Daniel Paletko.
The cities most affected include: Dearborn – 7,776 cases, 176 deaths; Livonia – 4,632 cases, 228 deaths; Canton Township – 4,347 cases, 88 deaths; and Dearborn Heights – 3,957 cases, 106 deaths, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.
Mayor Mike Duggan announced Tuesday that Detroit will increase its COVID-19 vaccination staff, extend working hours and keep those who are not yet eligible after being overwhelmed Monday with more than 120,000 appointments.
Detroit hopes to deliver 20,000 coronavirus vaccinations by February if the state is able to maintain adequate supplies. If additional doses come through, they hope to increase the number of vaccinations to 30,000, the mayor told reporters on Tuesday.