More than 2,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been wasted in the populous province of Tennessee since the beginning of this month, state health officials confirmed this week.
The Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed the thousands of wasted doses as part of an investigation launched last week. The investigation followed reports that more than 1,000 vaccine doses could expire before being administered in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
The state Department of Health has found that the Shelby County Department of Health has wasted more than 2,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine over seven separate “incidents” dating back to February 3, the department confirmed in a statement Tuesday.
One of the incidents, which led to hundreds of vaccines expiring, was due to the winter storms that hit the state earlier this month, which delayed the vaccination.
The Department of Health also confirmed that health officials in Shelby County had approximately 51,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in their inventory, nearly 30,000 doses more than they had to accumulate to plan for a few weeks of distribution.
The excess doses are not expected to expire until early next month, Lisa Piercey, Tennessee’s health commissioner, confirmed at a news conference on Tuesday.
“It’s important that we do this for the people of Shelby County and for the state as a whole, because we work to ensure a fair and efficient distribution of this life-saving vaccine to Tennesseans in all communities, especially those who are most vulnerable and less dependent. “Piercey said in the Tuesday statement.
As a result of the investigation, health officials in Shelby County are no longer allowed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, officials, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other partners in Memphis will distribute the vaccinations.
The state investigation also led to arson.
State health officials have found that Shelby County Health Department employees do not have direct access to the vaccine supply. Only one pharmacist, who is not an employee in Shelby County and was rather employed under contract, had direct access to the vaccines.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris (D) Tuesday announced that the city had fired the premises manager of the health department responsible for overseeing the relationship with the contract pharmacist. The country has also requested that the pharmacist be removed from the administration of the vaccines.
Tennessee health officials administered at least 767,826 first-dose COVID-19 vaccines, which make up about 11.2 percent of the state’s population, according to a panel post from The Washington Post.