Plans to start giving the COVID vaccine to those 65 and older may have to be pushed back to the week of the 18th. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs says by then, there will be more places to get the vaccine. There are plans to expand the number of counties, and the number of days the vaccines are given: The Health Dept. has started distributing vaccine to clinics, community health centers, private clinics and hospitals. That means some people can go to the drive-thru’s, but others will be able to go to their own doctor.
Dobbs added that we should see a huge jump in the number of vaccines given to Mississippians. He says the NY Times said 28-thousand yesterday, but they had 40-thousand today. “The drive-thru’s are going great. Within 4 days, they did almost 6-thousand doses,” according to Dobbs.
But he added they are a little disappointed in the pace, and see some areas that need improvement. “CVS Walgreens, we’ve been working with them closely and hope they can ramp up the pace, but they’re going at about 1/4th the rate in Mississippi that they are in our neighboring states. We also have a reporting problem. We’re working with our partners to make sure they put it in the registry, because if it doesn’t get in the system it doesn’t count. Some of the hospitals and some of the clinics are only reporting about 50% of what they’ve gotten.”
He did ask that everybody keep in mind that that there are way more people over 75 than they have vaccine, so it’ll be a little bit of time before they can accommodate all of the demand.
“All the vaccine that we’ve received, we’ve pushed it out. We’re not sitting on any of the vaccines.”
