More than 250k coronavirus shots unused in Missouri long-term care
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Hundreds of thousands of coronavirus vaccine doses have gone unused by the long-term care facilities in Missouri. Now the governor wants to get them back so someone else can use them.
As of Monday, the state has administered 77,141 coronavirus vaccines to long-term care facilities, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. In total, 332,000 doses were allocated to the partnership with pharmacies to vaccinate people in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
"What happened there, is Walgreens and CVS, and not just here in Missouri, all across the country, probably overestimated what they can actually deliver," Gov. Mike Parson said during a news conference last week.
Parson said the state plans to get extra, unused doses from the pharmacies in an effort to speed up the vaccination process. The state is receiving about 76,000 doses per week, which are distributed to health care providers and used in mass vaccination clinics.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention entered a contract with CVS and Walgreens to administer shots in long-term care facilities nationwide. However, many of those shots have gone unused while the vaccination process as a whole continues at a slow pace.
CVS said in a statement that the federal government gave out doses based on facility bed counts. However, facilities are not always full and fewer staff members than expected are taking the coronavirus vaccine.
CVS said doses are sent from the federal stockpile to "depot" stores before being used in nursing homes. The pharmacy said it works with states to redirect extra vaccine, often before CVS gets the vials.
Walgreens said it has administered more than 32,000 shots in Missouri facilities as of Jan. 31. CVS has given about 44,000 shots in 277 Missouri facilities.
Walgreens says it has 90 more vaccine clinics scheduled in long-term care facilities over the next week.
Both Walgreens and CVS started vaccinations on Dec. 28.
According to the Missouri COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, 530,485 total vaccine doses have been administered to residents and 2% of Missouri's population has received two doses of the vaccine.
More than 150,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine were given out from Jan. 24-30.
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