In the race for states to administer Covid-19 vaccines to residents, Alabama has been constantly following the package.
Alabama has administered 10,013 doses to 100,000 people since Tuesday, the lowest rate among states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, it had among the highest rates in the US positive coronavirus tests in the last month, at 29.1%, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Several factors are at stake, say health officials and specialists. Alabama’s public health system has been depleted by years of poor funding, leaving some counties with few or no staff health departments. Administrative and technological problems, including inadequate programming programs and outdated software, hampered the effort.
The Alabama vaccine scheduling line was initially down, with insufficient lines to meet demand, said Dr. Karen Landers, a district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health. A programming site was launched only last week. Last month, a booking issue led to the presence of people for scheduled meetings at a vaccination event in the Birmingham area, only to find that it was listed incorrectly and no one was there.
Much of Alabama’s population lives in rural areas with limited health services. Since 2009, seven rural hospitals have closed in the state as part of a wider wave of factor-related closures, including population loss and patient poverty, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services at the University of Carolina. North.