The rate of Covid-19 vaccinations in the United States, which accelerated to a chaotic start, dropped rapidly after a winter storm blew through much of the country, closing the vaccination sites and sending millions of doses slowed it down.
© Bryan Woolston / Reuters
The UPS airline in Louisville, Ky., Closed last week due to severe weather.
About 1.52 million doses of vaccine are administered daily, according to a New York Times database. Although still above President Biden’s target, it is the lowest rate since February 8.
The country rushed to vaccinate as many people as possible before more contagious and potentially deadly variants of the coronavirus became prevalent, and the figure had been well above the president’s target of 1.5 million doses for several days. It reached a peak of 1.7 million on February 16 before a fierce winter storm hit states from coast to coast. The bad weather has delayed the shipment of vaccine supplies from two hubs: a FedEx center in Memphis and a UPS site in Louisville, Ky.
According to the Federal Agency for Emergency Management, more than 2,000 vaccination sites were in areas with power outages. Many are not only forced to shut down, but rely on generators to keep doses at the ultra-cold temperatures needed to prevent them from spoiling.
The city of New York has less than 1,000 first doses of Covid-19 on hand due to delays during the transmission of snowstorms across the country, the city reported Saturday. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city of New York was delayed due to the shortage to plan up to 35,000 first-dose appointments.
The storm has amassed six million doses, about three days’ delay in shipping, and has halted appointments across the country, White House adviser Andy Slavitt told a news conference.
States have made up part of the backlog with existing inventory, Mr. Slavitt said. Of the six million doses, 1.4 million were already in transit on Friday, he added, and the rest were expected to be delivered next week.
“We ask the vaccine administration sites to extend their hours further and offer additional appointments and to try to reschedule the vaccinations over the coming days and weeks as there is significantly more stock,” he said. Slavitt said Friday.
The bottlenecks and delays came, just as the states expanded access to more groups to ends, despite a limited supply not growing enough to keep up.
California Gavin Newsom has said the state will discuss ten percent of its first vaccine doses for teachers and school workers from March 1, after expanding access to all Californians with chronic health conditions and disabilities.
Some countries have started vaccinations again. Texas, after an icy storm left millions of people without power and water, reopened the vaccination stations. According to the state health department, according to the state health department, the state was given nearly 600,000 first doses of the vaccine, compared to the 400,000 first doses for the week of February 15th.
The doses that were supposed to be delivered this week are still waiting to be shipped from outside warehouses to Texas, state health officials said. The missed doses are expected to be delivered in the first half of this week.
In Dallas, a major vaccination center at Fair Park will reopen Sunday, but premises in Austin remain closed.
On Sunday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told Face the Nation that vaccinations had resumed there and that a FEMA website would open on Monday with the potential to shoot 6,000 people a day for the next six to eight weeks. to apply. He estimated that the city could vaccinate more than 100,000 people in the coming week. “The people are resilient,” he said. “I’m very proud of the people in the city of Houston, how they came together.”
The state of New York is still planning appointments for new mass vaccination sites that will open in Brooklyn and Queens on Wednesday in partnership with FEMA.
Government officials said they had received 40 percent of their vaccine award for the week, and that they expected the rest to be distributed on Sunday.
The new sites at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and York College in Queens are open to residents of certain postal codes only and are intended to increase low vaccination rates in color communities. Data released on Tuesday showed drastic differences between vaccination rates in the white areas of New York compared to the predominantly black neighborhoods.
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