MORGANTOWN — The Dominion Post spoke with West Virginia Health Care Association CEO Marty Wright on Tuesday to clear up some misinformation circulating that day about a supposed shortage or loss of vaccine doses for long-term care facilities.
The confusion arose, he said, from an email he’d sent out about dosage questions a task force that meets daily would be reviewing and resolving Tuesday morning.
The HCA is a trade association overseeing and representing long-term care facilities in the state and has been working with the state to allot vaccine distribution to facilities.
As part of the initial shipment of 16,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, he said, the HCA received about 8,500. But, as it turned out nationwide, some vials allow for six full doses instead of five.
“As we’ve worked through this process, the task force has adjusted allocations as we learn more information,” he said.
He didn’t have a number at hand on how many more doses this allowed for, but it did enable the first round of vaccinations to go faster than expected, he said.
The HCA received its second allotment of 8,500 doses, he said, and the question arose of how many the allotment would actually yield. “That created some challenges in trying to do dose allocations.”
Among the challenges was not knowing if there would be enough to provide first doses for those who didn’t get a first vaccination the first time around, he said.
His email raised those questions, and the task force reviewed and answered them Tuesday, he said. “Everything is progressing as originally planned.” There will be enough for everyone who needs the second dose plus get a first dose to those who want one.
The good news, he said, is that they’ve seen a 10% increase in the number of staff members who want to take the vaccine, as those staffers have seen the success of the first round.
The Dominion Post was awaiting additional comments from state officials working with the vaccine program but hadn’t heard back by deadline.
Tweet David Beard@dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
