Vaccine Distribution Tracker: How Many Doses Can Your State Expect?

Vaccine Distribution Tracker: How Many Doses Can Your State Expect? See where the federal government is sending 5.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough to inoculate 2.9 million people against the coronavirus. nytimes

The federal government said Wednesday that 5.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — enough to inoculate more than 2.9 million people — had been set aside mainly for states and territories to start protecting medical workers and nursing home residents against the coronavirus.

Delivery vans and UPS planes fanned out across the country this week carrying the first precious doses. The federal government has not provided data on how many Pfizer doses have arrived in their intended locations, or about how many people have received shots. The development, study and approval of the vaccine took place in record time, but also was only the first step in a long process toward ending the pandemic. The vaccination campaign is the most ambitious in American history, and producing enough doses, sending them to the right places and convincing enough people to take them promises to be a long and complicated mobilization. This first wave of shipments will vaccinate less than 1 percent of the nation’s population and will cover only a fraction of the 21 million health care workers and three million long-term care facility residents who are up first.

“I feel like the first wave is going to be the easy one – sending it to hospitals,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit that represents public health officials who handle vaccines. “It’s just going to get harder. You’re either going to get a lot more supply and have to figure that out, or you’re not going to have enough supply and have to figure that out.”

Regulators could approve a second vaccine, developed by Moderna, in the coming days.

The Pfizer vaccine requires a two-dose regimen, taken about three weeks apart. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, states and a group of federal agencies have been allotted more than 2.9 million first doses, followed closely by another 2.9 million. Each state was granted an amount of the vaccine roughly in proportion to their population. Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia have been allocated doses separately from their states. And some states, like Alaska, North Dakota and Utah, will receive a supplement for tribal governments that have elected to receive their vaccines through the state, rather than through the federal Indian Health Service.