One month into 2021, and the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines is still off to a slow start. While health care workers and people 70 or older in Louisiana have been eligible for the vaccine for at least a month, most in the state have yet to receive their doses.
In Louisiana, 889,000 people are eligible for vaccines as of Jan. 28, and 339,445 people had received the first of two doses, according to the state health department. But only 57,926 people in the state had received both doses.
Like in other states, some residents have made appointments for vaccines only to have them canceled as shipments have decreased or plateaued over recent weeks. On Jan. 22, Ochsner announced it would postpone any appointments for the first dose scheduled for Jan. 26 or later in south Louisiana, reporting a 70% decrease in its vaccine shipments from the federal government over four weeks. That led to the cancellation of roughly 21,000 appointments, according to an Ochsner official.
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Louisianans are also expressing concerns about older residents' ability to make appointments in the first place, especially because people 70 and older are less likely to use the internet.
Appointments may be made over the phone, but those online may have an advantage to first see when spots open up and even find details about who to call in the first place.
“My mom would not have gotten one of it weren’t for me being on Twitter,” wrote Twitter user @shimoji___, whose mother was reportedly able to get the first dose before Ochsner began canceling appointments.
Same here. My mom would not have gotten one of it weren’t for me being on twitter.
— ITS STILL MARDI GRAS 💜💚💛 (@Shimoji___) January 25, 2021
New Orleans Health Department Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno said at a press conference Wednesday that the city has been working to make sure people who may not have access to technology or transportation are still able to access the vaccine — reaching out to community leaders and partners to get the word out.
Avegno said the city is in the process of calling those eligible for the vaccine and setting up through its NOLA-311 hotline a citywide waitlist that providers can draw from when they have extra doses. She also said officials are preparing for mass vaccination sites, transportation to and from the sites and delivering vaccines to homebound individuals, and they are confident the city will be ready when more doses become available.
“We are trying to reach every single corner, every single person because this is not going to work if the only people that get this vaccine are those who have access to technology, a car and all sorts of resources, and we leave others behind,” Avegno said.
The Biden administration — which has said it inherited a largely nonexistent vaccine distribution plan from the Trump administration — announced Tuesday that it would purchase an additional 200 million vaccine doses in hopes of vaccinating 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall.
Louisiana officials said they're expecting 67,350 doses next week, up from about 58,000 this week. The state has a population of more than 4.6 million
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