Takers ebb, state plans to dial back on vaccines

Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, State Epidemiologist with the Arkansas Department of Health, speaks Monday Feb. 22, 2021 in Little Rock during a press conference to announce a new initiative to educate Arkansans on the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine. The initiative is led by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Arkansas Minority Health Commission, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas Council, UAMS and Walmart. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staton Breidenthal)
Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, State Epidemiologist with the Arkansas Department of Health, speaks Monday Feb. 22, 2021 in Little Rock during a press conference to announce a new initiative to educate Arkansans on the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine. The initiative is led by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Arkansas Minority Health Commission, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas Council, UAMS and Walmart. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staton Breidenthal)

As the pace of coronavirus vaccinations in Arkansas continues to show signs of slowing, a state official said Wednesday that Arkansas likely will order less than its full allocation of vaccine from the federal government next week for the second week in a row.

"I don't think that we will" order the full allocation, state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said.

"I think we still have a pretty good stockpile of vaccine in Arkansas, and we would prefer to use that first before adding to it, or at least diminish it to some degree."

Meanwhile, the state count of coronavirus cases rose Wednesday by 291 -- the first daily increase in four days that was smaller than the one a week earlier.

After falling by 13 Tuesday, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 rose Wednesday by eight, to 165.

The death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose by one, to 5,726.

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In a statement, Gov. Asa Hutchinson noted that the 1,908 cases in the state that were considered active, while higher than the previous day, were down from the 1,943 that were active the previous Wednesday.

"Today's report shows lower active cases and fewer new cases compared to last week," Hutchinson said.

"Our vaccination efforts continue as we have doses of all three vaccines available in every county. These vaccines are safe, effective and offer us the best path forward toward the end of this pandemic."

According to the Health Department, the total number of vaccine doses that have been administered in the state, including second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, grew Wednesday by 18,224.

That was down by almost 2,500 doses from the daily increase a week earlier.

The average number of doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period fell by about 350, to just over 14,440.

That average has mostly fallen since peaking at about 23,000 a day during the week ending April 7.

DOSES ALLOTTED

With the state's vaccine supply exceeding the demand, Arkansas last week for the first time ordered significantly less than its weekly allocation of vaccine from the federal government.

It was allotted enough of the Pfizer vaccine to provide initial doses to 44,460 people this week, but ordered only 17,550, or 39%, of those doses.

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It ordered 13,800 initial doses of Moderna, amounting to 42% of the 32,600 initial doses it was allotted.

For next week, the state's allotment of initial doses of both vaccines is the same: 44,460 of Pfizer and 32,600 of Moderna, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The state also was allotted 6,700 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after not receiving deliveries of it for the previous two weeks.

The use of that vaccine was suspended nationwide on April 13 after some people who received it -- none in Arkansas -- developed a rare blood clotting disorder.

Following recommendations of the CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Hutchinson said Monday that the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Arkansas could resume.

Dillaha said she didn't have details Wednesday on how much of the three vaccines Arkansas will order for next week.

As of Monday, providers in the state had 358,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, 288,000 of Moderna and 70,000 Johnson & Johnson.

About 80,000 Pfizer and Moderna doses were designated to provide the second shots of those vaccines' two-dose regimens, Col. Robert Ator, who is coordinating the state's vaccination program, said Tuesday.

VACCINATIONS SLOWER

At the Doctor's Orders pharmacy in Pine Bluff, vaccinations have "slowed down significantly," owner Lelan Stice said.

Instead of hundreds a day, "we're doing, most days, probably around 40 to 50 new injections" for people receiving their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, he said.

His Doctor's Orders pharmacy in White Hall is giving five or six initial Pfizer shots a day and the one in Star City, which uses Moderna, is giving about 10 a day, he said.

He said he's no longer requiring appointments for the shots.

Last week, he asked the Health Department not to send him any more initial doses while he tries to use up his inventory.

He said he has about 7,000 initial doses of Pfizer, and "it all expires in July."

Some of those may end up having to be redistributed, he said.

"If the pace remains like it is, [and] we don't get people motivated to get the vaccine then, yeah, it will be difficult to use it all up," Stice said.

In the meantime, he said, finding enough people to use all the doses in each vial has also sometimes been a challenge. The Pfizer vials, for instance, usually have six doses.

"At the end of the day, we used to could always find someone to give the last few doses, but now we can't find people," Stice said. "We might get one or two we can find, so we've had to waste a few doses."

WASTED DOSES

According to the Health Department, 2,379 vaccine doses statewide had been wasted as of April 14 after being left unused in a vial or syringe, amounting to 0.16% of the nearly 1.5 million doses that had been administered at that time. More recent figures weren't available Wednesday.

"I think we probably will see the wastage go up because we're trying to vaccinate smaller and smaller groups of people," Dillaha said.

"We've decided that we would give priority to making sure people get vaccinated and not withhold the vaccine for fear of wasting a dose."

She said the state monitors the vaccines' expiration dates. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can be stored frozen for up to six months. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be stored refrigerated for up to three months.

"I'm not particularly worried about it at this point," Dillaha said. "If we have older vaccines, we'll try to use it first."

According to the CDC, the number of Arkansans who had received at least one vaccine dose rose Wednesday by 5,473, to 1,060,712, representing about 35.1% of the state's population.

The number who were fully vaccinated rose by 10,276, to 743,022, or about 24.6% of the population.

Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas continued to rank 44th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one vaccine dose and 46th in the percentage who had been fully vaccinated.

Nationally, 43% of people had received at least one vaccine dose, and 29.5% had been fully vaccinated.

RANKING FALLS

According to a federal report released this week, Arkansas went from having the second-lowest number of new cases per capita during the week that ended April 15 to having the third-lowest, behind Hawaii and California, the following week.

That shift happened as Arkansas' new cases increased slightly and California's fell by 23%.

Similarly, Arkansas went from having the third-lowest percentage of its polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests that were positive during the week that ended April 13 to having the sixth-lowest percentage during the week that ended April 20.

Over the same period, the state's hospital admissions per 100 inpatient beds moved from being the fourth-lowest to the fifth-lowest.

The state also fell from having the 14th-lowest number of covid-19 deaths per capita during the week that ended April 15 to having the 15th-lowest rate the following week.

ACTIVE CASES RISE

Wednesday's increase in cases was larger than the one a day earlier but fell short of the spike of 352 cases on the previous Wednesday, April 21.

As a result, the average number of cases added to the state's tallies over a rolling seven-day period fell to 175, the lowest level since April 14.

The number of covid-19 patients on ventilators rose by one, to 27.

The number of virus patients in intensive care as of 2 p.m. rose by two, to 73.

The cases that were added in the state included 179 that were confirmed through PCR tests.

The other 112 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.

The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 335,289.

That comprised 262,607 confirmed cases and 72,682 probable ones.

The number of cases that were considered active rose by 64 as new cases outpaced recoveries.

Washington County had the most new cases, 43, followed by Benton County, which had 34, and Pulaski County, which had 28.

The Health Department didn't report any new cases among prison and jail inmates.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the East Central Arkansas Community Correction Center in West Memphis had one new case among inmates.

That was the only case at the lockup that was active as of Wednesday, she said.

The state's death toll rose by one, to 4,547, among confirmed cases and remained at 1,179 among probable cases.

Among nursing home and assisted living facility residents, the state's count of virus deaths remained at 2,074.

The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 grew by seven, to 15,807.

The number of the state's virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator with covid-19 remained at 1,617.

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