Boxes containing the Modern COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be shipped to the McKesson Distribution Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, USA December 20, 2020.
Paul Sancya | Reuters
The federal government is changing the way it allocates doses of coronavirus vaccine, now basing it on how fast states can administer vaccines and the size of their elderly population, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Tuesday.
States will receive two weeks to prepare for the change, Azar told reporters during a press briefing. This should give states enough time to improve their reporting to the government and ensure that all vaccinations are documented “promptly,” he said.
States currently do not report vaccinations in a timely manner, Azar said, adding that vaccine doses “stay in freezers in hospitals.”
The announcement comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues new guidelines that extend coronavirus vaccine eligibility to everyone 65 and older, as well as those with comorbid conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. The state’s focus on vaccinating health care workers and nursing homes has created a deadlock, slowing the pace of vaccinations, a government official told CNBC.
“States should not wait for phase 1a prioritization to be completed before moving to broader eligibility categories,” Azar said on Tuesday, explaining the new guidelines. “Think of it as boarding a plane. You may have a sequential order in which you board people. But don’t wait until literally every person in a group is boarded before moving on to the next. . ”
The administration will also stop withholding millions of doses reserved for the second round of two-dose vaccines Pfizer and Moderna, the official said, adding that they released doses that had been kept in reserve on Sunday. President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team announced a similar plan on Friday.
Vaccine doses were previously allocated based on the number of adults in each state. However, US officials complain that the pace of vaccinations has been too slow, as the supply of vaccine doses exceeds demand.
On Monday morning, more than 25.4 million doses were distributed in the United States, but just over 8.9 million photos were administered, according to CDC data. The number is far from the federal government’s goal of inoculating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million Americans by the end of this month.
This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.