MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The Alabama Department of Public Health said on Wednesday that it will be removing vaccine supplies from providers who are not administering doses in a timely manner.
According to ADPH, county health departments are required to administer all of their vaccine inventory each week until they run out of doses. ADPH said unused doses will be redirected to other providers who will be able to administer the vaccine more quickly.
ADPH will survey all providers in the state to ensure administered doses have been properly reported to the department.
The department said it understands that some smaller rural counties could have difficulty distributing the vaccine at the volume. With that in mind, ADPH said it is partnering with community providers to help get the vaccine to the public quickly.
ADPH said it has been distributing its full federal allotment of vaccine doses to providers across the state over the past four weeks.
As of January 20, ADPH said 446,150 of the 640,150 doses allocated to the state have been delivered and no doses in the state have been discarded. Of those delivered, 184,618 doses have been administered in the state.
Additionally, ADPH is reporting there have been 429,655 cases of the virus and 6,283 COVID-19-related deaths in Alabama as of January 20.
State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said the biggest obstacle to vaccination currently is the limited supply of doses.
“Every person who receives a COVID-19 shot is deserving of one and will receive it, as we are determined to make sure that no vaccine is sitting unused on the shelf," Dr. Harris said. "We are attempting to manage expectations, because the timeline for receipt of vaccine has not changed and we cannot give people a resource we don’t have yet."
ADPH said employees have been redirected from their existing duties to help assist county health departments with vaccination clinics.
The department recently updated its COVID-19 vaccine dashboard to include a map of all vaccine providers across Alabama.
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