Thousands of vaccine appointments have gone unfulfilled over the past week, prompting local health officials to open COVID-19 vaccines to people aged 55 and older.
Clerm County’s two mass vaccination sites, as well as smaller sites, are working well below capacity, Drs. Fermin Leguen, head of the health district in southern Nevada, said Monday.
“We’re really struggling right now to fill our vaccination sites,” Leguen said.
Both mass vaccination sites can administer approximately 4,000 doses per day. However, Leguen recently said that the Cashman Center administers less than 2,500 a day, and that the Las Vegas Convention Center rarely violates 3,000.
The problem comes less than a month after the vaccination was considered for residents in the age group 65 to 69 years. Another group of frontline workers were eligible on March 2nd.
The decline in appointments has not led to an increase in wasted doses, Leguen said. However, there are hundreds of volunteers, employees and members of the Nevada National Guard working on vaccines that are not being utilized to their full potential.
Leguen said more people in the age group 65 to 69 can still work, compared to older residents, making it harder to plan an appointment during the day. The health district plans to expand public outreach and later keep mass vaccination sites open in an effort to attract more patients, he said.
But the most effective solution to increase the appointments immediately is to allow access to a larger group of public.
The health district has requested that government officials lower the minimum age for vaccination for the general public from 65 to 55, Leguen said. About 270,000 people between the ages of 55 and 64 live in Clark County, according to the 2019 Census Bureau estimate.
Nevada’s vaccination playbook does not have a predetermined fitness group for people in the age group 55 to 64. Instead, the Nevadans age would be 16 to 64 with underlying conditions, disabilities or homelessness.
Nevada Department of Health and Human Services officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the early days of Nevada’s vaccination campaign, appointments were frustratingly difficult and are often booked within minutes or hours.
This has changed as the state’s weekly allocation of vaccines has increased rapidly.
In January, the average allocation was about 36,000 doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. In February, it climbed to about 48,000. So far in March, after the release of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it was closer to 76,000.
Other large-scale vaccination sites reported being present too late.
UNLV’s clinic, which can administer 2,000 doses a day, has been operating at half capacity for the past few working days, said Dr Michael Gardner, president and CEO of UNLV Medicine, the medical practice of the University’s School of Medicine.
In addition to promoting vaccinations via websites and social media, Gardner has personally called grocery stores to encourage managers to notify employees that they are eligible for vaccination last week.
Until more groups are eligible, ‘we are concerned that this will be an ongoing issue,’ Gardner said.
He said as a physician and not a representative of UNLV. He said he hopes the qualification will soon be extended to more occupations, more age groups and people with underlying health conditions.
“I hope we can move in those directions in the relatively near future because it will help a lot of people,” he said.
This is an evolving story. Check back for updates.
Where to get the vaccine
Appointments on the first day on the same day and appointments on the second dose for people vaccinated in a health district or a partner clinic are available at the Cashman Center and Las Vegas Convention Center.
The Cashman Clinic is located at Exhibit Hall B, 850 N. Las Vegas Blvd. The conference center clinic is located in the C-1 area of the central hall of the facility. Both sites are open from Tuesday to Saturday.
Questions? Call daily 08: 00-20: 00 1-800-401-0946.
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at [email protected] or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.
Contact Mary Hynes at [email protected] or 702-383-0336. Follow @ MaryHynes1 on Twitter.