Covid vaccine shipments delayed by storm to reach mid-week: White House adviser

All deliveries of Covid-19 vaccine doses that were delayed last week by the historic winter storm are expected to be delivered by mid-week, White House Chief Counsel for Covid-19 Andy Slavitt said Monday.

Slavitt said Friday that the delivery of about 6 million doses, representing shipments worth about three days, was delayed by the storm.

“We reported on Friday that we will reach deliveries by the end of this week,” Slavitt said Monday at a White House Covid-19 press conference. We now anticipate that all remaining doses will be administered by mid-week.

He added that on Monday, the federal government plans to deliver about 7 million doses of vaccine, a combination of photos that were outstanding last week and some that were due out this week. He said the government’s ability to catch up with the storm quickly is due to members of the military and McKesson employees, whom the government has hired to help distribute and logistics the vaccine.

“Seventy McKesson employees volunteered to work shifts from 1 a.m. Saturday night through Sunday morning to prepare shipments to meet the 11 a.m. transit deadline,” he said, adding that UPS employees were, also flexible to accommodate outstanding deliveries.

Slavitt added that although the White House anticipated a speedy recovery in dosing, “it will take time” for vaccination sites to recover their vaccinations.

“We encourage vaccination sites to follow the same direction as those who work long hours to catch up by scheduling deliveries by scheduling more meetings to vaccinate the anxious public as soon as possible,” he said. Slavitt added that vaccination sites in some parts of the country, which have been particularly affected by the storm, are still closed.

The pace of vaccinations in Texas, which was shaken by the storm that left millions in the state without electricity, suffered severely. Slavitt said the seven-day average daily dose had dropped 31 percent in the past week.