BATON ROUGE, La (AP) – States have doubled their efforts to get the coronavirus vaccine into arms on Monday after the clinic closed in winter weather last week, delaying vaccine deliveries and forcing tens of thousands of people to take their shots to miss – as the country approaches the 500,000 deaths due to COVID-19.
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People are waiting in line for the opening of a 24-hour COVID-19 vaccination clinic hosted by the Black Doctors COVID-19 consortium in the Liacouras Center of Temple University in Philadelphia. States are working fast to get the coronavirus vaccine in the arms of humans after the icy storms, icy temperatures and widespread power outages last week’s closed clinics and the delivery of vaccines nationwide. (AP Photo / Matt Rourke, File)
President Joe Biden intended to mark the milestone with a moment of silence and a candlelight vigil in the White House. He will also drop US flags at federal buildings over the next five days.
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FILE – On this February 19, 2021, a photo, the traffic cones around the empty parking lot of the Dodger Stadium, a massive COVID-19 vaccination in Los Angeles. California has closed some vaccination centers and delayed appointments following winter storms elsewhere in the country that hampered the delivery of doses. (AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes, file)
In Louisiana, state health officials said doses of last week’s deliveries were delivered over the weekend and were expected to continue until Wednesday. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said supplies last week arrived Monday. And in Nashville, Tennessee, health officials were able to vaccinate more than 2,300 senior citizens and teachers over the weekend after days of treacherous weather.
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Virus outbreak
“We will ask the vaccine providers to do a lot,” said Louisiana’s leading public health adviser, Dr. Joe Kanter, who expects it to take a week or two to catch up to a stormy roads with ice and departure. many areas without running water.
Snow, ice and weather-related power outages have closed some vaccination sites and kept the necessary shipments across much of the country, including in the deep south.
As a result, the seven-day mean first-dose administered dropped by 20 percent between February 14 and February 21, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The White House said about a third of the approximately 6 million doses of vaccines delayed by bad weather were delivered over the weekend, and the administration plans to work with distractors and states this week. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the catch-up doses would be sent to vaccination centers as soon as they could handle them.
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FILE – In this photo, on 5 February 2021, dr. Ingrid Felix-Peralta, second from the left, and her husband, dr. Victor Peralta, second from right, to the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in New York. States are working fast to get the coronavirus vaccine in the arms of humans after the icy storms, icy temperatures and widespread power outages last week’s closed clinics and the delivery of vaccines nationwide. (AP Photo / Seth Wenig, File)
The effort unfolded as some states began expanding the pool of people eligible to receive shots.
Some hospitals, clinics, community sites and pharmacies that are in Louisiana’s vaccination network are receiving double doses this week – just as Governor John Bel Edwards is offering shots to teachers, daycare workers, pregnant women and people aged 55 to 64 with certain pre-existing conditions.
Last week’s weather forced local health officials in Nashville, Tennessee, to vaccinate more than 500 people with doses that would otherwise have expired, including hundreds at homeless shelters and residents of a historic Black neighborhood who were mostly elderly people with underlying health conditions. .
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FILE – In this file photo of February 17, 2021, people are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Las Vegas. States are working fast to get the coronavirus vaccine in the arms of humans after the icy storms, icy temperatures and widespread power outages last week’s closed clinics and the delivery of vaccines nationwide. (AP Photo / John Locher, File)
New York mayors expect to catch up after being forced to plan tens of thousands of appointments last week, the mayor said Monday.
“It means we actually lost a full week in our vaccination efforts,” DeBlasio said. “But that will not stop us from reaching our goal of vaccinating 5 million New Yorkers by June, because we still have the ability and the ability to do that.”
Illinois’s leading doctor said a plan to expand vaccines to people with underlying health conditions this month was delayed by a shortage of doses, and it would take months before supply could meet demand. The director of the department of public health, dr. Ngozi Ezike’s remarks in a Chicago Tribune weekend’s remarks come amid complaints about shortages and problems getting appointments.
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FILE – In this file photo on February 18, 2021, a pharmacist prepares a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccination site at NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan in New York. States are working fast to get the coronavirus vaccine in the arms of humans after the icy storms, icy temperatures and widespread power outages last week’s closed clinics and the delivery of vaccines nationwide. (AP Photo / Mary Altaffer, file)
More than 7.3 million Californians have received at least one vaccine dose, but the stock is far less than the amount the state can administer, Gavin Newsom, the government, said Monday.
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FILE – On February 10, 2021, the file photo, Vera Eskridge (86), was escorted to the waiting area by registered nurse Angelo Bautista on the right after her COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in the Los Angeles Mission in the Skid parking lot Row area of Los Angeles. States are working fast to get the coronavirus vaccine in the arms of humans after the icy storms, icy temperatures and widespread power outages last week’s closed clinics and the delivery of vaccines nationwide. (AP Photo / Jae C. Hong, file)
California expects to receive 1.4 million doses this week and 1.5 million next week, Newsom said during a stop in Long Beach on a tour of vaccination efforts by the state.
Meanwhile, some states are lifting restrictions on residents as the number of new infections eases.
In New Jersey, fans will be allowed to attend sporting and entertainment events at the state’s largest facilities in limited numbers from next week, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday.
New Jersey venues with 5,000 indoor seats will be able to fill 10% of the seats, and outdoor spaces with more than 5,000 seats could fill 15% from March 1, the Democratic governor on sports radio station WFAN said. Face coverings and social distance should be required at events.
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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press writers Brian Hannon in Salt Lake City, Utah; John Antczak in Long Beach, California; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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