For now demand continues to outpace supply of the coronavirus vaccine. So far Connecticut state officials say they've administered more than 300,000 doses, and on Tuesday, all states received a bit of good news from the federal government.
“They announced we would, all states would, be getting a 16% increase in their allocation for next week. So that’s a good step in the right direction,” said Connecticut Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe.
Geballe says that means an increase from 46,000 to 53,000 first doses per week for at least the next three weeks. The Biden administration also promised to now give states estimates for vaccine distribution three weeks in advance instead of going week to week.
“That made it very hard on us to plan. It made it very hard on our providers to plan ahead and figure out how many appointments they could book. So that three week forecast is definitely helpful,” said Geballe.
But even with the increased number of doses coming in, the state says it’s still a fraction of what providers are hoping to get and hand out.
“We had requests this week from all of our vaccine partners for over 150,000 doses for the week. Against that 46,000 or now 53,000 next week, we’re still way short of what we can do. And we hope that those numbers will continue to go up in the weeks to come,” said Geballe.
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President Biden said they’re also working to purchase 200 million more doses from Moderna and Pfizer that’ll start arriving this summer. Adding on that purchase, the total supply expected to the US would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans.
“But brutal truth is, it’s going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated. Months. And the next few months, masks, not vaccines, are the best defense against COVID-19,” said Biden.
