How 1,500 unused vaccines helped convince John Bel Edwards to expand eligibility in Louisiana | Coronavirus

When Gov. John Bel Edwards expanded vaccine eligibility earlier this week to anyone 16 years of age and older with one of many general health conditions, he cited supplier reports that ” release ”of the appointment request.

At the Notre-Dame-du-Lac Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, officials first noticed a drop in interest on March 2, when 124 appointments for the coronavirus vaccine were not filled. That number quickly grew to around 300 open locations per day.

As of Sunday, the hospital had 1,500 unused doses on its shelves.

“That’s when we said, ‘We have to open up eligibility. We need to see more people in the community getting vaccinated, ”said LaDonna Williams, vice president of operations for the Notre Dame du Lac group of doctors, who praised the Edwards administration. to go so fast at their request.

Louisiana now ranks among the most open states in the United States when it comes to who is allowed to be vaccinated. It is estimated that nearly three in four adults in Louisiana meet the broad category of “overweight” or “obese” under the new rules released Tuesday, and countless more are now eligible with medical conditions such as cancer, high blood pressure or are smokers.

“We are trying to find that perfect spot and when there is a little bit of daylight in the lineup, that’s a message for us to expand,” Dr Joe Kanter, director of health at the State.

As expected, demand for the rescue jab quickly followed. Ochsner Health said it responded to around 500 appointment requests per hour after Edwards’ announcement and that the Baton Rouge general filled 700 places in 90 minutes. At the newly opened mass vaccination site at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, morning appointments are now filled days in advance.

Notre-Dame du Lac has said her appointments from Thursday afternoon are reserved for seven days – and her remaining doses will soon be injected into weapons.

“Our goal is to not have a vaccine on the shelves for longer than is absolutely necessary,” Edwards said of his decision on Tuesday. “The more people who get vaccinated, and the faster it happens, the more likely we are to get back to normal.”

Louisiana currently ranks 29th in the country for the percentage of its population fully vaccinated, with 10.5% of its residents fully vaccinated, according to data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some providers said they had not experienced the so-called “slackening” of dates, but nonetheless praised the expansion for its part in pushing people to think about getting vaccinated as soon as possible.

Dr Jeffrey Elder, an executive at LCMC Health overseeing distribution at the Morial Center, said the expanded eligibility “maintains the interest in getting vaccinated,” helping to prime the public so that when supplies increase, demand will be there.

The mass vaccination site is currently administering around 3,000 doses per week, but Elder said the amounts could quickly be increased at any time.

“We could do three times the amount we currently do, easily, without breaking a sweat, if we had enough doses,” Elder said.

Louisiana expects to receive about 100,000 doses next week, a shipment comparable to previous weeks. Authorities are forecasting a substantial increase in doses in April, but the exact figures are still unknown. The state said a small shipment of the Johnson & Johnson single-injection vaccine could arrive next week, although a larger allocation is not expected until the end of the month.

Ochsner’s vaccination operation manager Dawn Pevey said it was rare for them to end the week with unused doses. Still, she said demand briefly slowed among teachers, who were eligible on February 18. Pevey said Ochsner recently set aside 700 doses for a teachers-only event, although many were redirected elsewhere after it was clear there would be leftovers.

Pevey said Ochsner is able to deliver up to 75,000 doses per week if supplies were available, and in January distributed around 25,000 doses over a two-day period to “test the pressure” of its operations.

“We’re ready to administer as much as we are,” said Pevey.