COVID cases continue to trend downward
With the expected emergency approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine coming from the FDA in a matter of weeks, the supply should be bumped up making it easier to vaccinate all who are 65 and older at a faster pace.
It’s been more than a month since Michiganders age 65 and older became eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
So far Michigan has vaccinated 31.91 percent of its residents over age 65 with at least the first of two doses. That’s 563,407 of 1,765,401 in that age group.
Of the state’s 1,634,609 vaccine doses administered, almost half (46%) have gone to those over age 65.
Those seniors, along with some essential workers like teachers, comprise Phase 1B. A majority of them will have to be vaccinated before the state moves on to 1C.
The process would go more quickly but the vaccine supply has not met the demand.
The Henry Ford Health System has more than 450,000 patients who are age 65 and older.
“You can imagine with the number of vaccines we’ve got so far — we’ve been able to administer over 100,000 vaccines this included our healthcare workers in phase 1A — we are nowhere near reaching any significant percentage of those 65 and over,’’
Dr. Adnan Munkarah, executive vice president and chief clinical officer. of the Henry Ford Health System, said on Monday.
“This is why we still need a significant supply to be able to do that. If we get the supply based on the state goals — the state goal is to vaccinate 70% of the population in Michigan in the next 100days — can we broker with them and the local health department to reach that? Absolutely,’’ Munkarah said. “The supply is the biggest issue at the present time. We might be able to ramp up our vaccination to close to 30,000 a week. We are nowhere near this at this time.’’
With the expected emergency approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine coming from the FDA in a matter of weeks, the supply should be bumped up making it easier to vaccinate all who are 65 and older at a faster pace.
“At the current rate of supply we are getting it would take us into the fall. We do not believe that will be the case,’’ said Bob Riney, president of healthcare operations and chief operating officer at Henry Ford.
He mentioned new vaccines and also that Pfizer has announced it will double production and Moderna is in full flow.
“We would need 5 (times) the supply we’re getting now in order to meet that need in the next 8-10 weeks. We’re prepared to do so if we can get the supply,’’ Riney said.
Michigan has administered 83.59 percent of the doses that it has received (1,919,975) which ranks it 10th in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control.