The US government will begin shipping COVID-19 vaccines directly to community health centers next week in an effort to speed vaccinations ...
The US government will begin shipping COVID-19 vaccines directly to community health centers next week in an effort to speed vaccinations and ensure doses are reaching vulnerable people, health officials said on Tuesday.
The government will send doses to 250 centers nationwide selected based on their proximity to vulnerable groups, such as homeless people and those with limited proficiency in English, they said.
Typically, vaccine doses would go to state governments for distribution to health centers.
Eventually the effort will expand to more than 1,300 community health centers, a considerable extension of a program to send one million doses of vaccine to 6,500 retail pharmacies, beginning this week, and growing eventually to as many as 40,000 locations.
The federal government will initially distribute one million vaccine doses to the health centers and increase from there, officials added on Tuesday.
So far, the US has administered 44.4 million doses of vaccine, and 10.2 percent of the population has gotten one or more shots.
Vaccine doses will be sent directly to community health centers starting next week, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday. The expansion should help vaccinate homeless people and non-English speakers. Some community health centers are already designated vaccination sites by states, including Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles, which allowed people to line up for extra doses so they would not spoil last month (file)
Some towns in the UK and Canada began vaccinating homeless populations last month, and community health centers are already vaccination sites in some states including California.
The program is part of a broader push by the Biden administration to increase access to COVID-19 shots with the goal of administering 100 million doses in Biden's first 100 days in office.
Biden has also made it a priority to ensure that vaccines are distributed equitably with respect to race, ethnicity and economic status.
The US government is already ahead of pace to meet its goal of 100 million shots in 100 days, which only required it to modestly outpace the previous administration's distribution levels.
Biden said in January he may aim for 150 million shots in that time, but his press secretary later said 100 million was still the official target.
The White House this week began coordinating shipments of vaccines directly to 6,500 pharmacies with the goal of reaching about 40,000.
'We are providing tools to communities around the country to do this work and look forward to partnering with them to ensure equity,' said Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the Biden administration's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, on a press call.
The US has boosted vaccine distribution from 8.6 million doses to 11 million doses weekly since Biden came into office three weeks ago, said Jeff Zients, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator.
The White House has said it plans to continue boosting the number of doses it distributes and will use the federal government's emergency powers under the Defense Production Act, to increase production of vaccines.
Johnson & Johnson is expected to receive authorization for its experimental COVID vaccine as soon as this month which would further increase vaccine supplies.
That would nearly immediately make another 100 million doss available for distribution across the US.
No comments