Vaccine supply to increase as millions of Missourians will soon be eligible
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Gov. Mike Parson announced Thursday that vaccine supply will increase as millions of Missourians will become coronavirus vaccine-eligible in the next few weeks.
"The federal government has informed us that COVID-19 vaccine allotments to Missouri are projected to increase significantly by the first week of April," Parson said.
The Governor said it's important for Missouri to be prepared for a potential increase of vaccine supply since opening Phases 2 and 3 will make approximately 2 million more Missourians eligible for the vaccine.
The plan is for Phase 2, which includes people in construction, critical manufacturing, higher education, and remaining food and agriculture sectors, to open up on March 29. While Phase 3, which includes all Missourians over 18, to open up on April 9.
Brad Myers with MU Health Care said it is ready and prepared for an increase in vaccine supply.
"Currently we run about 2,600 to 2,800 community members in a 12-hour period, however, we designed our model so we can get up to about 5,000 people per day through the vaccination clinic," Myers said.
The model is designed to be high throughput, so MU Health Care has the resources to move through thousands of Missourians a day.
Myers said the vaccination clinic on Friday, which was the first one through MU Health Care since Phase 1B Tier 3 opened up, filled up appointments in a matter of hours.
"We had 5,200 vaccines available this week and all those were filled up in about three hours, there is a lot of engagement and a lot of excitement," Myers said.
Lisa Cox, a spokesperson with the state health department said it communicates with all state-enrolled vaccinators and local public health agencies at least once a week with all of the latest updates.
"As you'll see, we open with the fact that more vaccines are coming next month, and now is the time to make preparations regarding staffing, equipment, etc," Cox said.
Out of the 4.5 million total Missourians that will be eligible, Parson said the state estimates approximately 60% will choose to get a vaccine.
So far, 1,293,768 Missourians or more than 21% of the population have initiated vaccination, according to the state's vaccine dashboard.
