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Ariana Taylor
| Detroit News
Wayne County Health Department officials on Tuesday ordered elderly residents to contact local hospitals to arrange COVID-19 vaccinations, as the few doses they received from the state are reserved for first responders , long-term care staff and other front-line workers. .
Wayne County health strategist Dr Mouhanad Hammami told Wayne County commissioners on Tuesday that the department had requested nearly 5,000 doses of the vaccine for its last three shipments, but received significantly fewer.
“The state didn’t get what they expected from the federal government, we didn’t get what we wanted from the state and so on. You can only distribute what you have,” said Hammami to the commissioners.
The largest county in the state, except Detroit, received three shipments of vaccine. Each time, the county has requested 4,875 doses, Hammami said. The county received 1,950 doses on December 17; 975 doses on December 29 and 2,925 doses on Monday.
Hammami said Monday’s cargo would run out by the middle of next week.
“We need it for 11,000 (people), as of today. Tomorrow the number will increase more and more, ”Hammami told commissioners.
Hammami said that if the state allows agencies to move to Phase 1B, which allows anyone over 65 to be vaccinated, that is not possible in Wayne County. “We can’t go up to 1B with the speed everyone expects from us,” he said.
The county has approximately 500,000 people eligible for vaccines and 11,000 people registered for vaccines.
Hospitals and health systems currently have the most reliable supply of vaccines for the elderly, Hammami said.
“I want to point out that anyone aged 65 and over, because that’s the contradiction that the state said, ‘Call your health department,’ which won’t do them any good if they call us. In fact, it will place a heavy burden on us because we are going to repeat the same message: you have to go to your health care system, ”Hammami told the Detroit News Monday.
The county is also working with superintendents to investigate school districts to determine how many teachers would be ready to receive the vaccine to determine future needs, he said.
Hospitals were also overwhelmed with requests for vaccination appointments. Beaumont Health tripled the capacity of its servers over the weekend after its website crashed Friday due to high demand for COVID-19 vaccines.
The surge in demand came after Beaumont informed patients on Thursday evening that vaccinations would be available for people 65 and older from Monday.
Nearly one million Beaumont patients have access to myBeaumontChart, an online health portal that connects people with their health records, medical test information and appointments.
Beaumont currently has the capacity to vaccinate 3,200 people per day at the Beaumont service center in Southfield and plans to expand to other sites soon.
Henry Ford Health System said he started contacting his existing patients 65 and over on Friday afternoon through MyChart, the hospital’s online patient portal and was proactively trying to contact patients that are not part of this system to encourage them to sign up, spokesman John Gillespie told me.
► For subscribers: Michigan vaccine demand exceeds supply
Tim Killeen, who chairs the commission’s health and social services committee, said it wouldn’t be a good idea for the county to use its size as a reason to push for more doses of the vaccine.
“You had better believe that each jurisdiction is pushing for more vaccines to arrive in their jurisdiction,” Killeen said. “The last thing you want is for the number of vaccines your local jurisdiction receives to relate directly to the political power of the individuals in that jurisdiction. We have to distribute this vaccine regardless of the politics involved.”
There are more than 58,000 cases in the county and an additional 27,000 cases in Detroit.
Excluding Detroit, the county has had 1,859 deaths, including Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and Dearborn Heights Mayor Daniel Paletko.
The cities most affected are: Dearborn – 7,776 cases, 176 deaths; Livonia – 4,632 cases, 228 deaths; Canton Township – 4,347 cases, 88 deaths; and Dearborn Heights – 3,957 cases, 106 deaths, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Mayor Mike Duggan announced Tuesday that Detroit is increasing the staffing of its COVID-19 vaccination call center, increasing hours of operation and urging those not yet eligible to hold on after being inundated on Monday with more than 120,000 appointment requests.
Detroit hopes to deliver 20,000 coronavirus vaccines by early February if the state is able to maintain an adequate supply. If additional doses arrive, they hope to increase the number of vaccinations to 30,000, the mayor told reporters on Tuesday.
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