More than 2,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccine wasted in Tennessee County: health officials

More than 2,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been wasted in Tennessee’s most populous county since the start of the month, public health officials confirmed this week.

The Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed the thousands of wasted doses in an investigation launched last week. The investigation follows reports that more than 1,000 doses of the vaccine were allowed to expire before they could be administered in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.

The state health department found that the Shelby County health department wasted more than 2,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in seven separate “incidents” dating back to February 3, the department confirmed in a statement. Tuesday.

One of the incidents, which caused hundreds of vaccines to expire, was due to winter storms that hit the state earlier this month and delayed vaccinations.

The Department of Health also confirmed that Shelby County health officials have around 51,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in their inventory, nearly 30,000 more doses than they should have stored in order to plan for several. distribution weeks.

The excessive doses are not expected to expire until early next month, Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday.

“It is important that we secure this right for the people of Shelby County and for the state as a whole as we work to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of this life-saving vaccine to Tennesseans in all communities, especially the most vulnerable and underserved, ”Piercey said in Tuesday’s statement.

As a result of the investigation, Shelby County health officials will no longer be allowed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, Memphis city officials, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other partners will distribute the vaccines.

The state investigation also resulted in layoffs.

State health officials found that employees of the Shelby County Health Department did not have direct access to the vaccine supply. Only one pharmacist, who is not an employee of Shelby County and was instead hired on contract, had direct access to vaccines.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris (D) announced Tuesday that the city fired the site manager of the health department who was responsible for overseeing the relationship with the contract pharmacist. The county also requested that the pharmacist be removed from administering vaccines.

Tennessee health officials administered at least 767,826 initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, representing about 11.2% of the state’s population, according to a Washington Post dashboard.