Bloomberg analysis: Md. is slowest state at distributing vaccine, Va. is 4th slowest
There's concern about the speed of COVID-19 vaccine distribution nationwide right now, but especially in some states.
According to a new Bloomberg analysis, Maryland is the slowest in the nation, and Virginia is the fourth slowest.
As of today, just over 36,000 people have been vaccinated in Maryland. That's less than 20 percent of the vaccine supply the state has been promised by the federal government.
Dr. Jinlene Chan, who's overseeing the state's vaccine distribution, says that just because Maryland has been promised those doses, doesn't mean the vials are sitting on the shelves.
At the beginning of December, Governor Larry Hogan said the state was hoping to get 300,000 vaccines by the end of the month, "then hopefully it's going to really ramp up from there as production starts to accelerate," he said.
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The state now has just about 191,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on hand, and with roughly 36,669 having been given their first dose already, that means about 80 percent of vaccine vials the state has received are still sitting in coolers.
Dr. Chan tells us: “Allocation is one element of the process."
"We then have to order the vaccine and it takes, sometimes a few days, and especially with the holidays, some may not be able to get that vaccine until maybe today," she says. “I think that it’s unrealistic to expect that a hospital that receives 2,000 vaccines is able to vaccinate 2,000 immediately that same day."
She added that, out of the 275,000 doses reserved for Maryland, 60,000 are being held back, saved for long term care facilities.
Nursing homes and long-term care facilities are working directly with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies for the vaccine plans, rather than going through other health care systems.
Beyond simply ordering and waiting for the shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to arrive, Dr. Chan said extensive training must be done at health care systems to ensure the vials are properly handled and no vaccine goes to waste.
“We are ramping up. In the new year, you will see more vaccinations being done,” Dr. Chan said optimistically.
The federal government tells states at the end of each week how many doses they are allocated the following week, which often changes based on availability and the speed of production. Dr. Chan explained that because of that, it can be difficult for systems to plan ahead.
Right now, she said the state remains focused on the vaccine Phase 1A in terms of who is eligible for a vaccine, and would not put a timeline on when the state would move to Phase 1B or beyond, which would open the door for people to get their first does of COVID-19 vaccine.
“Given that we are operating with just projections in terms of vaccine allocation going into the future, it’s hard to really predict into the future an exact time frame when we can move into the next phrase,” she said.
